Edge, Jonathan Davis

EDGE, LOONEY, STERRETT, HORN, FILSON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/12/2009 at 13:43:04

Jonathan Davis Edge, a farmer residing in Newton Township, Jasper County, was born in Auglaize County, near Lima, Ohio, February 7,1836, and is a son of Jesse and Margaret (Looney) Edge. His father was born in Greene County, Ohio, March 7, 1811, while the paternal grandfather, whose name was George Davis Edge, was, it is supposed, a native of Tennessee, and lived in the vicinity of Knoxville for some years, removing from there to Ohio, He was a hero of the War or 1812.

Obediah Edge, our subject's great-grandfather was born in Virginia, while his father, who was born near Huddersfield, England, emigrated to this country in the old Colonial days and settled in Virginia where he followed the occupation of a fisherman While thus engaged he was drowned in Delaware Bay. Obediah Edge died in the Old Dominion but had previously gained possession of large tracts or land in Ohio, where be sent his four sons. One of them, George Davis, with his wife, journeyed on horseback from Tennessee to Ohio in 1808, crossing the Ohio River where the city of Cincinnati now stands. The family had been prominent in the south, and many of them were slave owners.

In 1852, when our subject was about sixteen year of age, the family came from Ohio to Iowa and settled in Cedar County, where his father, a man of moderate means, purchased a farm consisting of two hundred acres and resided thereon until his death in 1874. Our subject's mother was a daughter of Jonathan Looney, who was a member of a prominent Virginia family of Revolutionary fame. She was born in Virginia in 1811, and at the age of three years was taken by her parents to Ohio; she is now (1893) living at Wilton Junction, Iowa, at the advanced age of eighty-two.

Jonathan D. was the second in a family of eleven children, of whom we note the following: Mary D. died when eighteen years of age. Frank died at the age of thirty-three, leaving two children; he enlisted as a private in the Eleventh Iowa Infantry, and was wounded at Shiloh, his right arm being twice penetrated by minie balls. William H., a soldier in the war and a member of the Forty-sixth Iowa Infantry, has never married, and now lives with his mother at Wilton Junction. Jasper N., also a member of the Eleventh Iowa Infantry, now resides at Newton. Margaret L., who lives in Jasper County, Mo., married William H. Sterrett, and they have five children. The others of the family died when young.

A prominent characteristic of the Edge family is patriotism. Nine or more of that name in the different branches of the family did meritorious service in the war for the preservation of the Union, none of them being killed and none wounded but Frank, above mentioned. The subject of this sketch grew to manhood upon hi8 father's farm, and received a common-school education. At the age of twenty-three he left the parental home and commenced to work on a farm for an uncle, receiving $13 per month. At the breaking out of the Civil War, when the first call came for seventy-five thousand volunteers, in April 1861, he was one of the first to respond, and became a private in the Eleventh Ohio Infantry. September 25 of the same year he re-enlisted in the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, and was sent to Wyoming to look after the hostile Indians. While he had little fighting to do, he endured many hardships and his service was long and arduous. October 1, 1861, he was promoted to Sergeant of Company A, of his regiment, and was the ranking Sergeant in the regiment. For a time he also served as Quartermaster-Sergeant and Sergeant Major. April 1, 1865, he was discharged at Omaha, Neb., having served within a few days of four years.

After the war Mr. Edge spent a year in Ohio and then came back to Cedar County, Iowa, where he engaged in farming. In the fall of 1867, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha J. Horn, a member of an old Pennsylvania-Dutch family. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1842, and accompanied her father, James C. Horn, from that state to Cedar County, Iowa, in 1854. Mr. Horn conducted farming pursuits there until his death at the age of seventy-one; his wife died at the age of fifty-six. They had a family of three sons and four daughters, all of whom attained years of maturity. At the present time two daughters and three sons are living, as follows: Mrs. Edge, who is the eldest, Emma, widow of G. W. Reeder, and a resident of Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa; William H., who is engaged in the real-estate business in Oklahoma; James, who is in the stock commission business at South Omaha, Neb.; and George P., who resides in Cedar Rapids, Neb., being extensively interested in land at that place.

The maternal great-grandfather of Mrs. Edge, John Filson, was shot by the Indians while standing in his door at the Ohio home. He owned a large tract of land in what is now the heart of Cincinnati, and valued at millions of dollars. This property belongs to his heirs, of whom Mrs. Edge is one, but they are yet lacking some proof to get possession of it. Mr. and Mrs. Edge are the parents of two children-bright and promising young men, Charles O. and George W. The former is a graduate of the Newton High School, where he completed the course of study in 1888; the latter is a graduate of Hazel Dell Academy, of Newton. Both reside on the farm with their parents.

In 1871 Mr. Edge removed to Nebraska, and lived in Saunders County until 1877, when he returned to Cedar County, Iowa. In 1883 he came to his present farm in Newton Township. While in Nebraska he served as Justice of the Peace for several years, and also officiated as School Director. The family of which he is an honored representative possessed decided sympathies on behalf of the old-line Whig party, and our subject has been a life-long Republican. Socially he is identified with the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his family are members of the Methodist Church, the faith of his forefathers for many generations. He is one of Newton's most prosperous farmers and highly respected citizens, and justly merits the high esteem in which he is held by his acquaintances. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 365.