Milton Godard, b. 25 Jan 1814

MOSES, REED, RYEL, CAMPBELL, CLARK, GILLETT, CREVLING, CRANE

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 4/7/2004 at 07:50:13

Milton Godard is entitled to representation in this Biographical Album as a pioneer of Jackson, who has been an important factor in bringing it to its present high position as a great acricultural centre of one of the finest farming regions in the country. He is numbered among the principal farmers and stock-raisers of South Fork Township, where more than forty years ago he located as one of its earliest settlers, and now owns and manages a large and finely improved farm which he has developed from the prairies by the labor of his hands. He has built comfortable, roomy barns for the shelter of his cattle, besides other necessary buildings.

He comes of a good old New England family, and was himself a native of Connecticut, born in Granby, Hartford County, Jan. 25, 1814. His father, Grove Godard, was born in the same town, July 12, 1786, and was a son of John Godard, who is supposed to have been a native of the same town, where he carried on farming, and spent his last years. He was a gallant soldier in the War of 1812. The father of our subject was reared in the place of his nativity, and was married in that county to Aura Moses, May 12, 1808. Her father, Lieut. Moses, an officer in the State militia, was a native of Connecticut, and died in Canton, where he had been engaged as a farmer. After his marriage Mr. Godard settled on a farm belonging to his wife, and followed farming until his death, Jan. 31, 1853. The mother of our subject was born in North Canton, Feb. 1, 1793, and surviving her husband many years, she died March 23, 1876, in the home where she had been reared. She had four children by her marriage with the father of our subject - Climena, Sophronia, Milton, and Jerome.

The subject of this biographical review, was reared on the farm that had been his birthplace, and attending the district school until he was twenty years of age, obtained an excellent foundation for an education which was afterward supplemented by two terms attendance at a select school. He resided with his parents until after his marriage, and then established a home of his own. In the month of April, 1836, he started for Ohio with his family, traveling on the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound to New York City, thence by the Hudson River and Erie Canal to Buffalo, and from there by lake to Ashtabula, Ohio, and from there by stage to his destination in Fowler, Trumbull County. He was a pioneer of that part of Ohio, buying fifty acres of partly improved land, with a small frame house and barn on it. In 1834 he came to Iowa to investigate, intending, if he liked the country, to invest in some land with a view of settling here. He started October 12, and arrived at Springfield, as Maquoketa was then called, November 23. He found the country not far removed from its primitive wilderness. At that time there were but five houses on the present site of Maquoketa, and four of them were rude structures built of logs. He bought a claim to a tract of land included in his present farm, paying therefore $5. The following winter he devoted his time to getting out lumber to build with, and the next spring rented some improved land, and engaged in farming. In the fall he went back to Ohio, and remained there until the spring of 1845, when he returned to Jackson County with his family, coming by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Bellevue, and from there drove with a team to his future home. There were no railways then, and for some time Bellevue was the nearest market, and for years deer and other kinds of wild game were plenty, and the Indians still lingered in the neighborhood, being driven West only by advancing civilization. The years of toil that followed his settlement, have been amply rewarded, as we have seen, and he is now numbered among the well-to-do citizens of South Fork.

Mr. Godard was twice married. His first wife was Eunice Reed, a daughter of Sterling Reed, a native of Southwick, Mass. In July, 1844, in the pioneer home of herself and husband in Trumbull County, Ohio, she departed this life, leaving one child as the fruit of her marriage, Alphonso, who was born Nov. 18, 1836. He enlisted June 31, 1861, in the 31st Iowa Infantry, and served bravely until his discharge on account of disability, and returning home died soon after, one of the many martyrs who sacrificed themselves for their country. He left two children, Mary E. and Henry M. Mary married Roscoe Ryel, and they have three children; Henry married Ida Campbell, and they are the parents of three children.

The marriage of our subject to his present wife, formerly Miss Amaret Clark, was solemnized Nov. 18, 1844. She was born in Southwick, Hampden Co., Mass., March 26, 1817. Her father, Samuel Clark, was also a native of the old Bay State, and was a son of Capt. Reuben Clark, a farmer in that State. The father of the latter was a native of Wales. Capt. Clark was an officer in the Revolution, and besides owning a farm and managing it, he was a manufacturer of powder, and lost his life in an explosion at his factory. Mrs. Godard's father was reared and married in his native State, and in 1835, accompanied by his family, he started for Ohio with three horses, a wagon, and a sleigh, intending to use either vehicle as the roads demanded. He located among the early settlers of Hartford Township, Trumbull County, and bought a farm and tilled the soil until his death. The maiden name of Mrs. Godard's mother was Perlia Gillett, and she was a native of Massachusetts, and a daughter of Isaac and Susanna Gillett. She died on the home farm in Hartford. Mrs. Godard was educated in the academy at Southwick, and when only fifteen, commenced teaching, taught two terms in Massachusetts, and afterward taught in Connecticut and Ohio until her marriage. The married life of Mr. and Mrs. Godard has been blessed to them by the birth of four children: Loyal and Lucia Maria. Two died in infancy. Loyal, who remains on the home farm, married Emma Crevling, and they have five children - Elmer, Martin, Milton, Harley, and an infant unnamed; Lucia married Cephas Crane, of this township, and they have two children, Aura A., and Lura E.

Mr. and Mrs. Godard are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and their daily lives are guided by high Christian principles. Mr. Godard was in early life a Whig in his political views, but on the formation of the Republican party, believing its policy best in the guidance of National affairs, he fell into its ranks, and has ever since been one of its followers. He is a man whose personal character is without blemish, and he is reverenced and esteemed by the people among whom he has lived in peace and friendship for nearly half a century.

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