JACOB B TRUESDELL, b. 20 Jul 1835

TRUESDELL, LYONS, WALTON, MCCOY, HYSEL

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 1/24/2005 at 14:56:37

Thirty-four years have placed their mark on the dial of time since the subject of this notice first came to this county in the fall of 1855. A large portion of the country around had been but indifferently settled, and Mr. Truesdell, then a young man, spent his first winter in the embryo town of Sterling. In the spring of 1856 he settled with his parents on a tract of land in Iowa Township, which his father had purchased, and where Jacob P. sojourned until the fall of 1888. In the meantime the death of his father occurred not long after coming to Iowa in September, 1857. He, James Truesdell, was born in New York State, and married Miss Phebe Lyons. The father survived the mother eighteen years, passing to his long home in 1857. The mother died in 1839.

Mr. Tuesdell had a large and long experience of life in the West during the early days, and shared in common with the people around him their toils and sacrifices. He was successful as a tiller of the soil, but finally advancing years admonished him that it would be wise to retire from active labor, and in the fall of 1888 he disposed of a considerable amount of personal property, and leaving the farm, established himself at a pleasant home in Sabula. He still, however, retains possession of the old farm, which embraces eighty acres of good land, and is situated on section 20, in Iowa Township. He also owns forty acres on section 17 in that township.

To the parents of our subject there were born nine children, seven sons and two daughters, five of whom are living, namely: Hiel, Quincy, James, Harriet (Mrs. Walton), and Jacob P., our subject. The latter received a practical education in the common schools of his native place, which was near the city of Hamilton, Canada West. He was born July 20, 1835, and was a young man of twenty years when he came to Iowa with his parents. His marriage occurred about five years later, in Iowa Township, his bride being Miss Rachel E. McCoy, who was born and reared not far from the childhood home of our subject in the Dominion. The young people began their wedded life together on a farm in Iowa Township, and in due time became the parents of two children, Gertrude E., and James H. The first mentioned is now the wife of Andrew J. Hysel, of Hayes County, Neb., and is the mother of one child, a daughter. James H. is in Lincoln County, Neb.

Mr. Truesdell during the progress of the Civil War, enlisted as a Union soldier in Company H., 15th Iowa Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. He participated in many battles and skirmishes, served until June 1865, and returned home in safety. He has been Assessor of Iowa Township, and was Trustee there two terms, besides holding other local offices. Socially, he belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and the G.A.R. Although not a member of any religious denomination, he contributes liberally to the support of the Gospel and other worthy enterprises. Mrs. Rachel E. (McCoy) Truesdell departed this life at the homestead, March 13, 1880. Mr. Truesdell has sufficient to keep him in ease the remainder of his life, and is blest by the friendship and affection of scores of people who have known him long and well during his lengthy sojourn in this county.

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