Louisa W. (Haven) Edgerton, b. abt 1820

SNYDER, MASON, YOUNG, CRANE, HARRIS

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 3/7/2004 at 15:33:53

Mrs. Louisa W. Edgerton is a noble representative of the pioneer women of Jackson County, who, in the early days of its settlement, encouraged and aided their fathers, husbands, and brothers in their great task of developing the resources of the country, the making of a great commonwealth, and in the building up of society on firm foundations of industry, intelligence, and morality. She was one of the pioneer educators of the country, and as such deserves especial mention in this Biographical Album. She is the widow of Jerome C. Edgerton, who gave up his life for his country in the late war. She is a revered resident of Maquoketa, occupying a pleasant home on West Platte street.

Mrs. Edgerton was born about 1820, in Moriah, Essex Co., N.Y., where her grandfather, Nathaniel Haven, was a pioneer, having removed to that place from Brattleboro, Vt., when his son, Samuel T., father of Mrs. Edgerton, was eighteen years of age. The elder Haven bought a tract of timber land, and cleared a farm, on which he lived several years, afterward removing to Middleport, Niagara County, where he died at the home of a daughter. His wife, Elizabeth Snyder, of German descent, died on the home farm at Moriah. Samuel T. Haven bought timber land adjoining his father's, and, building thereon a log cabin, took to himself a wife, Almira Mason, born in Cheshire, Berkshire Co., Mass., daughter of Rufus and Mary (Young) Mason, the latter a native of Nova Scotia. Mrs. Haven had come to New York State when a child, with her parents, who subsequently died in Moriah. Mr. Haven was a natural mechanic. In addition to the care of his farm he did his own carpentering, and occasionally work at building for others. After living some years in the primitive structure named, he built a small frame house, and later moved into a still more commodious dwelling. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Haven, three of whom died in infancy; the others survive - Mary A., wife of Samuel N. Crane, of South Fork Township; Waterman D., in Maquoketa.

Louisa, Mrs. Edgerton, having finished her studies at Plattsburg Academy, at the age of nineteen, began teaching school. In 1847 she accompanied her father on a trip to Iowa, the journey being made partly by team, and partly by boat on the lakes. Six weeks after her arrival in Jackson County she resumed the occupation of teaching, in Maquoketa, which at that time contained but a few small houses, the most of them built of logs. Deer and other kinds of wild game were plenty. She boarded at the Goodenow Hotel, then kept in a log house, and the only one open to the public. During the winter she taught in La Motte, and again in the following summer at Maquoketa, going back to New York State in the autumn of that year. Mr. Haven, after visiting his daughter, Mrs. Crane, returned the same year to his home in Moriah, staying there until 1850, when, having sold out his property in that place, he again came West, bringing his family, and bought a farm in South Fork Township, where he spent the remaining years of his life. A railway through Michigan shortened the time and lessened the tediousness of this second journey.

After several more terms of school teaching, the subject of this sketch was married, on March 22, 1860, to Jerome C. Edgerton, a native of Vermont, son of Ebb and Edna (Harris) Edgerton, born Jan. 6, 1820. Taken to New York by his parents when quite young, Jerome C. Edgerton grew up in that State, and was so far educated at the age of seventeen as to then enter the pedagogical profession. He taught in the High School at Moriah. At twenty-five he went to Rochester, and engaged in the lumber business. Twelve years later he went to Illinois, and took a contract to build a railway for the Jacksonville, Alton & St. Louis Railway Company. Through the failure of the company Mr. Edgerton lost all of his money, and the railway was never completed. In 1859 Mr. Edgerton came to Iowa, and settled in Muscatine County. In 1862 he enlisted in Company G, 35th Iowa Infantry, and went to Memphis, Tenn. He was musted into service as a Corporal, but was soon after detailed as a clerk in the medical department, and served in that capacity until his death, April 6, 1864. His remains repose in the National cemetery at Memphis.

After her husband's enlistement Mrs. Edgerton took up her former profession of teaching, which she continued a part of each year from that time until 1886, the last fifteen terms in Clinton. In 1872 she bought an eligible lot on West Platte street, in Maquoketa, and in the same year built the house which is still her dwelling. She is an esteemed member of the Congregational Church, and we may be sure not silent or inactive.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)