ALVA WILLIAM MARTIN, b 7 Aug 1864

MARTIN, OSBURN, TOMPKINS, FOSTER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 6/19/2004 at 22:39:43

This enterprising young farmer, of Van Buren Township, occupies no unimportant position in the rural community. He represents a good property, to the amount of 160 acres of well-cultivated land on section 11, and although but twenty-six years of age has made good headway toward a competence. He is a son of one of the earliest pioneers of this county, Thomas Martin, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States early in life and coming to Iowa, settled upon the land, which constitutes the present farm of his son, our subject.

Thomas Martin made the acquaintance of a most estimable young lady, Miss Emily, a daughter of Ebenezer Osburn, to whom he was married not long afterward. Mrs. Emily Martin was born in New York State, and became the mother of four children, namely: Alva William, our subject, Mary L., Frank, and Louetta, the two latter are deceased. Mary L. became the wife of George L. Tompkins, of Humboldt County, and the mother of two children. The father of our subject departed this life at the early age of forty-five years, and the mother subsequently married Mr. Edward Foster, of Van Buren Township, where she now lives.

The subject of this notice was born at the homestead which he now occupies, Aug. 7, 1864, and here he has spent the greater part of his life. He knows every nook and corner of the old farm, and it is hardly necessary to state that it possesses more to him than its mere value in dollars and cents. He brought a bride to the old rooftree in the latter part of 1883, having been married on the 23d of January that year, to Miss Esther, a daughter of Edward and Julia Kennedy. Mrs. Martin was born in Van Buren Township, March 9, 1862. Her father, Mr. Kennedy, was a blacksmith by trade. He is now deceased. Her mother resides in Humboldt County.

Our subject and his estimable wife are happy in the possession of one child, a daughter - Blanche. Politically, Mr. Martin has not yet decided as to which party he will give his support, he at present voting independently. He is a thorough and skillful farmer, having served a full apprenticeship at the business, assuming the responsibility of the farm since a youth of seventeen years. Eighty acres of it fell to him as his share of his father's property, and he purchased, in 1888, the remaining eighty acres of his sister. The many friends who are watching his career with kingly interest, predict that in the near future he will be numbered among the leading men of this part of the county.

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