Agar, Henry W.

AGAR, ALSOP, SAUERMAN, VAN CAMP, GRIM

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/23/2007 at 20:20:09

Henry W. Agar was born September 26, 1854, in Livingston County, New York, the son of Thomas and Lucy A. (Alsop) Agar, both natives of England, their home being in Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The family came to the United States about sixty years ago and settled in Livingston County, New York, where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits. In England he had followed the trade of cabinetmaker and general mechanic.

In 1864 the family removed to Muscatine County, Iowa, Mr. Agar, Sr., buying at that time eighty acres of land, and from time to time he added to his real estate holdings until he owned two hundred and forty-acres of fine land, and here, in the year 1866, the mother died at the age of fifty-three, leaving beside her husband, four children to mourn her loss. They are as follows: Libby, wife of C.F. Sauerman, a member of the board of County supervisors, lives in Newton; Henry W„ the subject of this sketch; Annie E., wife of G. W. Van Camp, representative of Greenfield, Adair County, lives at Greenfield, Iowa; Lollie E., wife of Frederick Grim, stock buyer and farmer, lives at Sibley, Iowa.

In 1867 Mr. Agar contracted a second marriage with Sarah Rowan, and to this marriage were born three children, as follows: Albert E., a farmer living near Sibley, Iowa; Eugenia, wife of Otto Bohnsack, living on the old home farm in Muscatine County, Iowa; Thomas, stock buyer and farmer, living at Montpelier, Muscatine County, Iowa.

About the year 1900 Mr. Agar, Sr., retired from active labor and moved to Montpelier, Iowa, where, in the year 1905. he departed this life at the age of ninety-one years. His widow still lives in Montpelier.

Henry W. Agar, the subject of this review, lived at home and helped his father on the farm until he was twenty-seven years of age, when he was united in marriage, in 1881, to Ada R. Fridley, the adopted daughter of Henry and Mary (Calhoun) Fridley. Mr. and Mrs. Fridley never had children of their own, and they gladly welcomed into their home the little child of two years, born October 15, 1861, whose parents had become estranged. She was brought up with all the loving care of an only child, and they early instilled into her those virtues and graces which have endeared her to her many friends. Mr. Fridley was a West Virginian by birth and Mrs. Fridley a native of North Carolina. They came to Muscatine County, Iowa, in the year 1846.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Agar lived in Muscatine County and engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1885, when they came to Jasper County, where Mr. Agar engaged in farming for a few years, after which he formed a partnership with W. L. Dennis in 1889, and the firm thus established bought out Johnson & Brother's lumber and grain business in Killduff, and this business they conducted until the year 1900, when they sold out to Messrs. Macy and Fleck, and Mr. Agar again engaged in agricultural pursuits and the buying and selling of live stock, which business he still continues to carry on.

To Mr. and Mrs. Agar have been born ten children, whose names are as follows: Ralph, born June 30, 1883, married Cora Earp, and lives in Colfax and is manager for the Denniston Partridge Lumber Company; May, born October 13. 1885, lives in Newton, is the wife of John P. Nelson; Henry, born February 13, 1887, married Mattie De Bruyn, and lives in Jasper County; Leroy, born December 9, 1889, bookkeeper for the Denniston Partridge Lumber Company at Newton; Ray, born March 3, 1891, lives at home; Iowa, born August 17, 1893, died at the age of fourteen years; Ethel, born June 28, 1895, is attending high school in Newton; Earl, born May 10, 1901, died in infancy and two other little ones, a boy and a girl, who died at birth.

Mr. Agar is a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Sully. He is no affiliated with any Church, although he was christened in the Episcopal Church when a child and brought up in that belief. In politics his sympathies are with the Democratic Party.

Mrs. Agar is a faithful and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Kilduff. Her adopted father, Mr. Fridley, died on June 21 1889, in Muscatine County, Iowa, at the age of eighty-one, and her mother died the 1st day of October 1911, at the age of ninety-one.

The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 813.