WILLIAM H LOCKWOOD, b 10 Aug 1822

LOCKWOOD, POTTER, PRUSSER, WRIGHT, TAYLOR, SHATTUCK, GREEN, HASKELL, WELLS, SOULE

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/16/2004 at 23:02:18

William H. Lockwood was numbered among the most enterprising of the sturdy, active pioneers of Jackson County in the fifties, and is now one of its successful and substantial farmers and stock-raisers. His farm in South Fork Township comprises 240 acres of highly fertile land under excellent cultivation, and yielding large crops, and has ample facilities for conducting agriculture by the best methods, and is well supplied with neat frame buildings for all purposes. Mr. Lockwood has dealt much in land since coming to this county, and has bought and sold many valuable tracts within its limits, besides dealing in real estate elsewhere to some extent.

The subject of this biographical review was born in Bolton, Waren Co., N.Y., Aug. 10, 1822, coming of New England stock. His paternal grandfather, David Lockwood, was a native of Connecticut, where he engaged in farming for many years, owning a farm seven miles from the shore of Long Island Sound. He finally removed to Chester, Warren Co., N.Y., in the very early days of its settlement, and after residing in Chester two years he went to Union village in Washington County, where he entered land and made his home the remainder of his life, and he now lies peacefully sleeping the sleep of the just near a Quaker church seven miles south of Union village.

David Lockwood, the father of our subject, was born at Horse Neck, Conn., and was a lad of thirteen years when his father removed to New York State, and there he was reared and married, Martha Potter, a native of Union village, becoming his wife. Her father, John Potter, was a farmer and spent his last years in Washington County, N.Y. His wife's maiden name was Ruah Prusser, and she was a native of Rhode Island, and spent her last years in Bolton, Warren Co., N.Y. After marriage Mr. Lockwood removed to Bolton, and having learned the trade of a tanner while a resident of Union village, he established himself at it in his new home, following it some years. But new methods were introduced, and the small manufacturers could no longer compete with the larger ones and were driven from the field, so he turned his attention to farming, which he followed in Bolton until his removal to Iowa to spend his closing years with his children, and in the home of our subject both he and his wife passed away at a ripe old age. They were the parents of eight children, as follows: George, in Warrenburg, Warren Co., N.Y.; Maria married Samuel S. Wright, and is now dead; Elizabeth (deceased) was the wife of Myron Taylor; Stephen is dead; William H. lives in South Fork Township; Caroline (deceased) was the wife of James Shattuck; Hiram is represented in this volume; Martin resides in Brookfield Township, Clinton County.

He of whom we write was reared in his native county until he was seventeen years old when he went to Quaker Springs, Saratoga Township and County, and there served two years to learn the trade of a carpenter and joiner. At the expiration of that time he went to Easton Corners, Washington County, and did journey-work eight years, and during that time bought an interest in a tract of timber land in Warren County, in his native State, and in the spring worked two weeks picking rocks off the place, when he got tired of such labor and resumed his trade until the fall of the same year, when he went to Hamilton County, and assisted in building a sawmill. In the winter he returned home and married, and took a contract to get out timber for a tannery, which he helped to build in the town of Horicon. He was engaged at that work a little more than a year, and then took a similar job in the same township, which employed his time another year. He continued to reside in Warren County working at his trade until 1854.

In that year Mr. Lockwood resolved to see what life held for him in the Great West. Accompanied by his wife, he traveled by wagon to Schenectady, thence on the Erie Canal to Buffalo, where he embarked on Lake Erie for Toledo; from that city to Rockford, Ill., the distance was traversed by rail, that place being the Western terminus of the railway, which had not then penetrated beyond the Mississippi river, and there he hired a team to convey him to Savanna, where he crossed the river to Sabula, and at length on the 13th of November stood on the soil of Iowa. He left his wife in that town and started on foot for Maquoketa. But there were fourteen inches of snow on the ground at that time, and after walking a part of the distance he was glad to hire a man to convey him the rest of the way. He met a man from that section and engaged him to go to Sabula to carry his wife and goods to his brother-in-law, S.S. Wright's place.

Mr. Lockwood bought eighty acres of land, forty on section 27, South Fork Township, and forty on section 26. There was a log house on section 27, into which the family moved on the 9th of April. The following spring he bought 160 acres of wild prairie land in Brookfield Township, and although he never resided on it he improved the greater part of it, and fifteen years later disposed of it at a good advance on the cost price. In 1856 he went to Wisconsin and entered eighty acres of timber land north of Black River Falls, never improving it, however, but selling it soon after. He has since bought land adjoining his homestead, and now has a fine 240-acre farm, as before mentioned. He has at different times bought and sold land in this county, making considerable money by his transactions.

Mr. Lockwood was married, Dec. 31, 1847, to Miss Abigail Green, and three children have blessed their wedded life; two died while young; Lydia I. is now Mrs. Haskell; she lives with her parents and has two children - Horatio L. and Francis M. Mrs. Lockwood is also a native of Bolton, N.Y., and her father, Allan Green, was a native of the same State, born in Greenwich, Washington County. His father, Benjamin Green, a native of the same county, was an early settler of Warren County, where he bought timbered land and cleared a farm in what is now the town of Bolton, of which he remained a resident till death called him hence. Mrs. Lockwood's father was young when his parents removed to Warren County, and he was there reared and married, Isabel Wells, a native of Warren County, becoming his wife. Her father, John Wells, was a pioneer of Warren County. His wife was Lydia Soule, and she was born in Washington County. After marriage Mrs. Lockwood's father bought a tract of land and improved a farm in Bolton, which remained his home till death.

Mr. Lockwood possesses a full share of common sense, acumen, and clear judgment; thrift and foresight may be reckoned among the characteristics that have contributed to his success. He has an extensive acquaintance in this county where so many years of his life have been passed, and none know him but to like and trust him. He and his good wife are members in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics he is in favor of the policy pursued by the Republican party.

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