Roswell K. Soper 1843-1910

SOPER, WILLIAMS, LEIN, HAWK, WEAVER, RIDLEY, HARVEY

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 4/6/2015 at 14:50:43

Sketch of Roswell K. Soper
He Was One of The Earliest Pioneers of Jones County, a Veteran of the Civil War.
And an Upright Honorable Citizen
Anamosa Eureka
Roswell K. Soper, a former resident of Greenfield township, Jones county, Iowa, a soldier in the Civil War in a company from Cedar Rapids, and later a prominent citizen of Emmet county, Iowa, but who, for the past ten years has been a resident of the state of Minnesota, died at his home in Jackson, Minnesota, Thursday afternoon, February 24, 1910 of pneumonia, after a brief illness. He had suffered since his military service with chronic diarrhea, which had caused a general debility, and when he had congestion of one lung he lost much of his strength and nerve, and heart failure followed. The funeral service were conducted at the home of his elder son in Estherville, Iowa, on Sunday the 27th, the body having been brought from Jackson, Minnesota, for burial at Estherville in Oak Hill cemetery. The services were conducted by Rev. Benjamin Franklin, pastor of the Baptist church at Estherville.

The deceased is survived by his second wife, who was Miss Julia Lein, and to whom he was married February 1, 1898, and two small daughters, in addition to two sons by his first marriage, Rufus Soper, residing at Estherville, Iowa, and Harry J. Soper, residing at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a daughter, Celinda, now Mrs. Isaac Hawk, residing at Boise, Idaho. He is also survived by two brothers, Erastus B. Soper, of Emmetsburg, Iowa, and Frank L. Soper, of Centerville, South Dakota, and two sisters, Mrs. Lillie [Lillis] Weaver, of Stockton, California, and Mrs. Almira Ridley, of Estherville, Iowa.

The deceased was born in the town of Pitcher , Chenango county, New York, May 19, 1843. His parents, Jacob Soper and Celinda Harvey, moved from Chenango county, New York, to Jones county, Iowa, in the fall of 1847, traveling by team and covered wagon, making the long journey in a little over forty days. Jacob Soper entered some four hundred acres of land in Fairview township, and the family home was established on the old military road near the Greenfield township line. The parents died many years ago, and lie buried in Norwich cemetery. Recently there has been erected in their memory a very substantial granite monument conspicuously marking their graves.

Roswell remained at home assisting his father with the farm work and attending the district school winters and, occasionally, a part of the summer term, when there was one, until October 1, 1861, when he enlisted as a private in Company D, Twelfth Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, and re-enlisted as a veteran in 1864. He continued to serve until the regiment was mustered out in January, 1866, after the close of the war. His military record, in brief was: He accompanied his company from Cedar Rapids to the rendezvous of the Twelfth Iowa at Camp Herron, Dubuque, in October, 1861, and the regiment to Benton Barracks, near St. Louis, early in December, 1861, and when his regiment was ordered to Fort Henry the latter part of January, 1862, although ill with mumps and ordered sent to the hospital in St. Louis, he, in some manner, evaded the authorities , and when the steamer with the Twelfth Iowa on board touched at Cairo on its way to the Tennessee river, he, fully equipped, was standing on the levee awaiting the gang plank. He was engaged with his regiment at Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson, and fought with his command at Shiloh, where, with the entire company and regiment he was taken prisoner, marched to Corinth, Mississippi, thence transported to Mobile, Alabama, Columbus and Macon, George, and in June, 1862, paroled with a portion of the company and regiment at Huntsville, Alabama, and sent to Benton Barracks to await exchange, which took place in October, 1862. Following the exchange of the prisoners and the reorganization and re-equipment of the regiment, he accompanied it to Duck Port, Louisiana, between Young’s Point and Milliken’s Bend, from which point he accompanied the command it its march around Vicksburg to Grand Gulf, and took part in the marches and battles to Jackson, Mississippi, the assaults and siege of Vicksburg and the pursuit of Johnson, following the surrender. He was in the camp on the Big Black river in the summer of 1863; was with his company and regiment the winter of 1863-64 a Chewalla, Tennessee, and again to Vicksburg and Big Black river with Sherman’s Meridian raid; accompanied the veterans home on their furlough in the spring of 1864; was with his command at the mouth of the White river following the return from furlough; was engaged in the battle at Tupelo and the campaigns after Forrest in the summer of 1864. He was in the long march after Price through Arkansas and Missouri, aggregating more than eight hundred miles, in the fall of 1864; was in the front line at the battle of Nashville in December 1864, and the pursuit of Bragg’s army, following its route in the battle. He was with the command as it descended the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in the winter of 1865, and with it on Mustang Island and the expedition and assaults against and upon the Spanish forts; was with the command when it ascended in Mobile and up the river and was with his company in its scout and garrison duty during the long summer of 1865. He with the regiment was mustered out at Memphis, Tennessee, in January, 1866, when he returned to Linn county, Iowa, near Mt. Vernon, where his father had removed after disposing of his farm in Jones county.

There was in Company D, no better soldier, nor in the Twelfth Iowa a braver man in battle, or more prompt or efficient in guard or camp duty. While in prison at Macon, Georgia, he contracted the diarrhea, from which he never fully recovered, and which contributed much to his untimely taking off.

His military services was to him in many ways of great benefit in after life. In his youth he was backward, developed slowly and learned with difficulty, and had a decided tendency to idleness in school; hence he made little progress, and when he enlisted at eighteen years of age he was unable to write a legible hand, which afterwards much improved, and after his marriage, when he saw the necessity of a knowledge of arithmetic, he speedily became proficient in numbers, especially in mental arithmetic, and it was said that he could figure up the price of an animal, or a bunch of cattle, with as much celerity and accuracy as most business men.

In 1867 he was married to Cynthia J. [Julia] Williams, daughter of Elisha Williams, a pioneer of Linn Grove, near Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He settled on a farm known as the Sam Miller place, east of the Breed farm in Greenfield township, Jones county, Iowa, and engaged in farming and dealing in stock, continuing in the vicinity of Martelle until his removal to Emmet county. His judgement of stock is said to never have been excelled in any community in which he ever resided or engaged in business.

In 1883 he removed from Martelle to Emmet county and bought a farm adjoining Estherville, the county seat, devoting his time mostly to dealing in stock, in which he was successful and accumulated a competency.

In politics he was a “dyed-in-the-wool” democrat and a friend and admirer of T.O. Bishop, his neighbor in Jones county, Iowa. He was a man of strong personal characteristics, and after his removal to Emmet county he figured conspicuously in democratic circles. When Horace Boies became governor he appointed Roswell K. Soper State Fish Commissioner, which office he held for one term, and probably would have been re-appointed had he thought the office worth holding. Some years later he was elected auditor of Emmet county as a democrat on an independent ticket and afterwards re-elected. It is said that he filled those offices with credit and to the satisfaction of the governor and the inhabitants of the county.

In 1899 he disposed of his interests in Emmet county and moved to St. James, Minnesota, where he lived until about five years ago, when he moved to Jackson, Minnesota, where, until his death, he lived very comfortably an happily. He had two daughters by his second wife, and in the care of whom he took great satisfaction. A few weeks ago he had the promise, apparently, of many years of life, but an attack of pneumonia so reduced the strength and vitality that before the neighbors hardly knew he was dangerously sick, he was dead.

Wherever he resided he was always considered a first class, public spirited citizen. He was devoted to his friends and they were legion. His death came as a general shock to his friends, both at Estherville and Jackson. (Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, April 13, 1910)