Lee, Nathan W.

LEE, EAST, CHANDLER, MARMON, WOODROW, WILSON, BLYLER, PEARSON, HIBBS

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/13/2009 at 07:24:31

Nathan W. Lee

Jasper County is the home of a large number of enterprising and progressive farmers whose estates add attractiveness to the landscape, being marked by first class improvements, and the air of thrift that gives one unacquainted with rural life a good idea of the value of farm property. Washington Township has her share of these well-regulated farms and one of them is located on section 17, where Mr. Lee owns two hundred and twenty-seven acres of land. In addition to this property he also owns a section of land in Texas.

In this sketch it is but a fitting tribute to a noble man that prominent mention should be made of the father of our subject, the late Ishmael Lee. He was born on a farm in Blount County, TN, May 22, 1815, and in his youth learned the trade of a shoemaker. In 1833 he removed to the vicinity of Richmond, Wayne County, IN, where he engaged in general farming. In 1834 he went to Michigan, and for eighteen years made his home in Cass County, removing to Iowa in 1852. In the winter of 1852-53 he lived on the Des Moines River, near the then existing town of Dudley, Warren County. In the spring of 1853 he removed to section 23, Franklin Township, Polk County, and cleared and improved a farm, where he resided until 1869. In the latter year he removed to Beaver Township, one-quarter of a mile south of Mitchellville, Iowa, where he died April 22, 1879, aged sixty-three years and eleven months.

While living in Michigan Ishmael Lee was married, January 14, 1836, to Miss Sallie East, who died April 22, 1840. Two children survive of that marriage, Mrs. Eliza Lee, who lives near Mitchellville, and Mrs. Hannah Chandler, of Lake City, IA. June 22, 1841, at Richmond, IN, Mr. Lee married Miss Miriam Marmon, a native of Ohio, who removed to Michigan at the age of twelve years. She is still living and makes her home with our subject. Her father, Peter Marmon, was of French descent. The second marriage of Mr. Lee resulted in the birth of the following children; Mary, wife of Peter Marmon, Elizabeth, who is the wife of William H. Woodrow, Lydia, who married John W. Wilson, Samuel and Nathan, who live on the farm where their father died, Peter, who enlisted in the Second Iowa Battery and died at Memphis, TN., March 32, 1865, Hiram, who died May 7, 1866, Ruth, who married Frank F. Blyler, and died November 19, 1871.

In the biography of Ishmael Lee, published a few days after his demise in the Mitchellville News, the following appears: "Mr. Lee was one of those peculiar men born into the world to fill a place that few men can fill. Not a public man in one sense, yet in another, few men have a wider reputation than he had and has. Never aspiring to office, and never filling any, yet he was never indifferent to anything. His views were always positive. He was never one of those men who get on the fence and wait for public opinion to tell them on which side they must full; but formed and advocated his views with freedom and independence from the start. Those views were never antagonistic to the fullest freedom and liberty of the human race. They were always formed upon the broadest platform of justice and liberty. In the stirring times of thirty years ago, he had no hesitation in allying himself with that sterling band of Garrisonian Abolitionists who fought the slave aristocracy against odds. He never faltered nor counted the cost, but all his energies were bent, in freedom's channel, until the starry banner covered no slave. The wily Kentuckian found him a foe whom their lash could not cower. An East Tennesseean by birth, the mountain air he inhaled in his youth was freighted with that magic liberty and Justice. Belonging to that society which always held the doctrine, 'Do as you would be done by,' it is doubtful whether he ever knowingly violated this rule.

"In his dealings with his fellow-men he was honest in all that the word implies. As a neighbor he had no enemies; the latchstring to his door was always out. As a husband he was a model. There was never any jarring nor discord in that family. As a father, few children were ever more blest. As a friend, he was warm and generous. As a counselor, he was safe and reliable. In politics he was an original Abolitionist. When the Republican Party came into existence he allied himself with it, and was always one of its most positive members. When a national or state election came, no man ever asked how Mr. Lee was going vote. Even in anti-monopoly times, when some of his best friends wandered from the Republican fold, no man had the hardihood to ask how Mr. Lee would vote.

"If Ishmael Lee had an enemy upon God's footstool, it was caused by a political discussion. He gave and received knocks in political strife, yet held animosity against no man. The controversies held between him and some of his old neighbors were legion, yet we doubt not there is a warm place in their hearts for the brave old man today. Mr. Lee kept even with the times. He was a friend and advocate of improvements and everything that would build up and enhance the good of the state and the nation. Honest himself, he gave humanity credit for the same virtue, and was often imposed upon by designing men, much to his own cost.

"The good, brave, conscientious old man has gone, leaving a record of good deeds as a legacy to his children, and a well spent life as an example to the world. He died happily, willingly and expressing the belief that 'it is all well for me for the hereafter.' "

The Casaopolis Democrat of June 19, 1879, in publishing his biography, stated that "He was a brave, noble, conscientious man, not learned nor erudite, but by his well spent life of good deeds he has left a worthy example to those who come after."

The subject of this sketch, the seventh child and third son of the parental family, was born in Polk County, Iowa, November 10, 1854. He was reared upon a farm, and in childhood received the advantages of a common-school education. When only eight years old, he commenced to plow, and from that time forward, was interested in farming. In March 1877, he was united in marriage with Miss Mattie Pearson, a native of Polk County, Iowa, who was born June 2, 1858, being the daughter of Jesse and Hannah (Hibbs) Pearson. Our subject purchased from his father the old homestead, and there resided until 1881, when he removed to his present farm. He and his wife are the parents of three sons, Athel, who died at the age of two months, W. Garfield and A. Blaine.

Although Mr. Lee can scarcely he called a politician, he is an ardent supporter of the Republican Party, and is a law-abiding citizen. In the Methodist Church at Mitchellville, he is a prominent member and one of the Trustee's. Personally, he possesses the qualities, which have surrounded him with warm friends, whose loyalty he warmly reciprocates. He is charitable and benevolent, and his honorable life is well worthy of emulation. The success which has come to him is well merited, and he ranks among the leading farmers of Washington Township. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 225.