McFarland, John Milton

MCFARLAND, PIERSON, COOK, SMILEY, MILLEKIN, KINCAID, WORK, LYNN, MORRIS, CLARK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/13/2009 at 12:55:36

John Milton McFarland, who is the head of the largest dry-goods house in Newton, was born in Washington County, Pa., February 16, 1816, and is the eldest in a family of six children born to William S. and Anna (Pierson) McFarland. While the McFarland family is an extensive one, and has been identified with the history of this country from the time the Pilgrim Fathers first landed on American soil, yet we can learn but little of their record. Their Scotch ancestors, on arriving in America, first settled in Massachusetts. Here we get the first trace of reliable information regarding the family, for here we find that Daniel McFarland, who was the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in 1731. He was the father of the following children: William, Abel; Sarah, Mrs. Stephen Cook, to whose union fifteen children were born; Anna, who became the wife of John Smiley and the mother of several children; John and Dorothy, who became the wife of Abel Millekin, and whose large family, together with the families of her brothers and sisters and their descendants forms a large part of the population of the United States.

In early life, and long before these children were born, Daniel McFarland, with his parents, emigrated to Washington County, Pa., their earthly possessions being conveyed across the Allegheny Mountains on the backs of horses. Here we find that the family purchased a large tract of land and became well to do. Daniel was called Major McFarland, although it is not now known how he received the title originally. A devoted Christian, he was, like all the early members of the family, a Presbyterian in faith. On the farm where he first settled he attained to a good old age, and there he died. He was spoken of in the highest terms as an upright, honest Christian gentleman.

The grandfather of our subject, William McFarland, was born on the home farm in Washington County, Pa. the exact date of his birth cannot be given, but as near as can be ascertained, it was in 1756. He was a farmer by occupation, and at a good old age died on the place where his whole life had been spent. He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and for thirty-six years prior to his death served as Justice of the Peace. In 1779 he married Miss Hannah Belsly, and they had the following children: James, William S., Samuel, Thomas, Rebecca, Sarah, Polly, Dilly, Patty and Hannah.

William Scott McFarland, the father of our subject, was born on the old home farm in Washington County, Pa., December 11, 1789, and was the fourth among nine children. About 1817 he removed with his family to Knox County, Ohio, and settled on a farm near Martinsburg, then an almost unbroken wilderness. Here he applied his energy to improving and beautifying a home, causing the wilderness to "bloom as the rose." He was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church at Martinsburg, and was a strong temperance man. He died in that city September 13, 1865, at the age of seventy-six years.

Of the children comprising the family of William Scott McFarland, we note the following: John Milton, the eldest, was born in Washington County, Pa.; Jane, Emily, Joseph, Addison, Thomas and Samuel were born in Knox County, Ohio. Jane and Thomas died in infancy, and Samuel in middle life. Joseph Addison is now living on the old homestead in Ohio, and is a prosperous farmer; he has a wife and six children. Emily has spent many years of her life in looking after and caring for the sick and sorrowing ones of earth, and her work has been well and faithfully done.

Regarding the history of the Pierson family but little can be learned more than the mere fact that Anna Pierson, our subject's mother, was born in New Jersey September 27, 1789, her parents being natives of Holland, and her mother bearing the maiden name or Sarah Van Dyke. She was one of the following children: Nicholas, Van Dyke, Philemon, Aruna, John, Katharine, Anna, Hannah, Sarah and Margaret. Her death occurred at the old homestead in Ohio, March 5, 1871. Thus briefly we have given the outline of one of America's oldest families. Referring directly to the history of our subject, we find that he was a little child when his parents removed to the vicinity of Martinsburg, Knox County, Ohio, and there his early years were passed, much as the youthful years of all boys in the then wilderness of Ohio. He aided in clearing up the farm, attended the primitive schools of the day, and later entered an academy at Granville, Ohio, where his education was completed. Later, he taught a country school. At the age of twenty years he entered a dry-goods store in Homer, and for the next five years we find him clerking for L. W. Knowlan at Utica, Ohio, and Daniel Axtell, at Homer, Ohio, afterward forming a partnership with D. Axtell in Martinsburg, Ohio.

Upon leaving the employment of Mr. Knowlan, who was a good Christian man, Mr. McFarland wanted some sound advice, and therefore asked his employer what he had better do. The reply was: "Do something, and do it well." All who know Father McFarland know that he bas faithfully followed this advice, for he has always been doing something, and has always done it well. At the age of twenty-five he became a partner of Daniel Axtell, and continued in that connection for two years. At the age of twenty-seven he married Miss Sarah Ann Kincaid, who was born in Pennsylvania September 18, 1824. Her parents, Thomas and Anna Kincaid, came from the North of Ireland. Her father, a man of culture, had been educated for the ministry, but abandoned that profession in order to become a merchant. She bad four brothers and three sisters: Robert, William, Thomas, Wesley, Elizabeth, Margaret and Bell, only three of whom now survive.

Shortly after his marriage Mr. McFarland formed a partnership with William Kincaid, a brother of his wife. A few years afterward he removed with his family to Newton, Iowa. He lived on a farm, and then established on a small scale the now extensive dry-goods house of which he is the proprietor. For more than fifty years he has been in the dry-goods trade, with the short exception noted above. November 21, 1883, after a happy married life of forty-two years, his devoted wife passed away. Their union had been blessed with five children, who are sketched as follows: Laura on the 1st of October 1863, married William G. Work, who at that time was home on a furlough, he being a soldier in Company E, Fourth Iowa Cavalry. About a year later she went to him in camp, near Memphis, Tenn., thence to Helena, Ark., remaining with the army until the spring of 1865, when they returned to Newton. Their daughter, Emily, who was born October 21, 1865, was united in marriage May 3, 1887, with Dr. A. M. Lynn, of Des Moines, and departed this life October 2, 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Work have resided in Des Moines since 1884, he being interested in the manufacture of starch.

H. M. McFarland, the second child of our subject, served for three years in the late war, being a member of Company K, Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry. In 1866 he married Adeline Newell, and they have three children: Frank, Dale Fleming and Donnell. For a number of years he was in the dry-goods business in Newton with his brother Charles and their father, but for the past nine years he has been an extensive real estate dealer in Des Moines. He is an active member of the Plymouth Congregational Church of that city.

Charles McFarland, now the active manager and partner in the mercantile establishment at Newton, and one on whom his father especially leans for assistance in his declining years, was educated, as were the other children, in Hazel Dell Academy, and has been a member of the firm of McFarland & Son since the house was founded. December 28, 1873, he married Annie Morris, and they became the parents of three children, viz.: Mary, who died at the age of two years; Morris, at the age of two years and a-half; and Mabel, when five years old.

Emily McFarland, who was born March 28, 1848, died May 31, 1865. William Scott, the youngest of the five children, was born August 4, 1850, and married Jennie Clark. For a time he was a partner in his father's store, but at the time of his death, May 9, 1880, he had been a clerk in the store of John V. Farwell & Co., of Chicago, in which city his widow and son Scott now reside. The McFarland family has for generations been prominent in the Presbyterian Church. Our subject became identified with that denomination at the age of seventeen years, since which time he has lived an upright, Christian life. At the close of the late war he became a member of the Congregational Church, and for the past twenty years has served as Deacon.

Coming from an old-line Whig family, it is not strange that Mr. McFarland has been a strong Republican from the days the party was organized. When departing this life, the record, which he will leave behind him may well be emulated by present and future generations. He has among his valued possessions a handkerchief, now nearly one hundred years old, which was made from a piece of a shirt worn by his grandfather, he having grown the flax, and his daughter manufactured it into cloth. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 620.