EDWIN MCDONALD, b 8 Jul 1826

MCDONALD, WEST, COBB, PETERMAN, BROWN

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 7/10/2004 at 16:45:11

Edwin McDonald owns, and is profitably managing, one of the most beautiful farms in Jackson County. It comprises 200 acres of choice land, pleasantly located on section 18, Perry Township, and is amply supplied with tasty and commodious buildings, and has many other very valuable improvements. His home, surrounded by groves of forest trees and a grove of evergreens, is considered one of the most attractive in all the township, and is the centre of a charming, unostentatious hospitality, wherein the pleasant hostess and genial host vie with each other in making their friends, or the stranger who happens within their gates, welcome and at ease.

Mr. Mcdonald is successfully engaged in rearing stock, and has a fine herd of full-blooded Jersey's, a number of hogs, (shipping two carloads each year), and has sixteen valuable Percheron and Clyde horses, of high grades.

The father of our subject, Orson McDonald, was born in Ballston Springs, N.Y., and was a son of John McDonald, a native of Scotland. The latter was in the English navy during the Revolution, and was taken prisoner by the Americans and confined until the close of the war. During some naval engagement he was wounded in the leg. After the cessation of hostilities, liking this country, he concluded to make his home here permanently, and located in Ballston Springs, where he remained until his death. His son, the father of our subject, was reared on the old homestead, and when a young man removed to Lewis County, in the same State, and bought a tract of land, which he improved into a farm. In 1835 he removed with his family to Sandusky City, Ohio, and was a pioneer farmer there. In 1856 he made another move still further westward, and, coming to Iowa, located in Fulton, on the banks of Farmers' Creek. He bought lots in that town, and resided there, but farmed in Perry Township, where he had purchased eighty acres of land, which he improved. He rounded out a useful and honored life. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a man whose strict honesty and kindly character won him the respect and esteem of all about him. He was a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party. His wife, whose maiden name was Deborah West, was also born in Ballston Springs, and was a daughter of the Rev. Mr. West, a Baptist minister of New York. She is now living in Fulton at the venerable age of eighty-nine years. Of the thirteen children born of her marriage the following is recorded: Melissa is in Maquoketa; Centalia is in Sandusky City, Ohio; Susan is dead; Edwin; Orson is in Denver, Colo.; Alex is in Maquoketa; Mary lives near Dubuque; Cyrus is dead; Wesley K. is in Pittsburg; Joel is in Huron County, Ohio; James is in Fulton; Henry is in Stockton, Ill.; and Alice is in Fulton. Alex, Wesley, Henry, James and Orson served through the war.

Edwin, of whom we write, was born in Turin, Lewis Co., N.Y., July 8, 1826, and he was nine years old when his parents removed to Erie County, Ohio. He gleaned his education in the district schools, and continued at home with his parents until he attained his majority. He was bred to the life of a farmer, and then adopted it as his own calling, first purchasing a farm of eighty acres, and, as he became more prosperous, buying the adjacent farm. In the spring of 1856 he came to Jackson County, Iowa, crossing the Mississippi River at Savanna. He farmed for awhile near Bellevue, and in the fall returned to his old home in Ohio, and engaged in farming in the same town, buying the place and managing it until 1861. He then established himself in the livery business in Bucyrus, Crawford County, that State, and subsequently engaged in buying and shipping horses to Eastern markets from Cincinnati, averaging over one carload a week during the war. After the close of the Rebellion he shipped to Ballston, N.Y., for awhile, and then abandoned that business and resumed the livery business, which he carried on until 1874. In that year, removing to Center Township, Marshall Co., Ind., he bought 100 acres of land, and again turned his attention to farming, remaining in that place three years. In the spring of 1881 he revisited Jackson County, coming here by rail, and bought 200 acres of land, partly improved, with a house on it, and has since been actively engaged in the improvement of this farm. He has erected a large and substantial barn, 40x70 feet, windmill, tanks, etc. He has his farm well fenced with hedge, wire and rail. The place is well watered by springs, and has a fine orchard of ten acres of choice fruit trees and lovely cedar and maple groves.

Mr. McDonald and Mrs. Pamelia (Cobb) Peterman were united in marriage in Bucyrus, Ohio, March 15, 1877, and to them have been born one child, Dora. Mrs. McDonald was the daughter of Capt. Elim Cobb, a native of Cumberland County, Pa. His father was also a native of Pennsylvania, and was a farmer by occupation. He removed to Crawford County, Ohio, was a pioneer there, and there died. Mrs. McDonald's father was a sailor on the lakes for twenty years, having entered the calling when he was fifteen years old, and was Captain of the vessell "Louisa Jenkins." He finally abandoned the lakes, and, turning his attention to farming, bought 300 acres of land in Bucyrus, and there died, in 1874, aged fifty-five years. His wife, whose maiden name was Nancy Brown, was born in Youngstown, Niagara Co., N.Y. Her father, Henry Brown, who was a native of the same county, and was a farmer there, was killed in the War of 1812. Mrs. McDonald's mother is still living, at an advanced age, on the old homestead in Ohio. She has two children - Charles, in Ohio, and Pamelia. The latter was born in Bucyrus, Crawford Co., Ohio, March 31, 1845. She remained at home until her first marriage, Sept. 19, 1861, to Westell Peterman, who was a native of the same place as herself. They remained there, engaged in farming, until his death, Sept. 5, 1876. Four children were born of that marriage - Addie, Charles, Steen, and Otto, all of whom are at home.

Mr. and Mrs. McDonald are people of fine character, who occupy an important position in the society of this community, and enjoy to the fullest extent the regard of all in the town. Mr. McDonald's pleasant, cheerful manners and undoubted integrity of character contribute to his popularity. While he lived in Ohio he served as Marshal, and also as Constable, and since coming to Perry has been School Director. In politics he is prominently identified with the Democratic party of this section, and has been a delegate to County Conventions. He is a member of the A.F. & A.M. Mrs. McDonald is a valued member of the Presbyterian Church at Fulton.

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