Moffitt, Elias B.

MOFFITT, COX, KNIGHT, HICKMAN, TROST

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/13/2009 at 13:27:05

Elias B. Moffitt, one of the largest landowners of Jasper County, and a well-known resident of Newton Township, was born near Winchester, Randolph County, IN, November 7, 1842. He traces his ancestry to Hugh Moffitt, an Irishman by birth, and one of four brothers who came to the United States and settled in North Carolina. Grandfather Joseph Moffitt was born in North Carolina in 1776, and was a Quaker by birth. Early in life he removed to Ohio and located in Rosa County, where his son Stephen was born June 20, 1807.

The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Mary Cox, was of English extraction. The Cox family was numbered among the pioneers of North Carolina and was prominent among the Quakers of that state, one of her uncles being a prominent preacher of that faith. She was born in Ohio and removed from there to Indiana, whence in 1852 she accompanied her husband to Iowa, settling on a farm in Jasper County, where she died May 8, 1853. Stephen Moffitt removed from the Buckeye State to Indiana in 1818, and there became known as a prosperous farmer. In 1852 he located upon the farm where our subject now resides, and on this place his eyes closed in death in December 1860.

Unto Stephen and Mary Moffitt were born ten children, nine of whom attained manhood and womanhood, Isypena married William Knight, a farmer residing in Seward County, NE; Irena who is unmarried, makes her home with our subject; Louisa, Mrs. William Hickman, died in Nebraska in 1892, leaving four children; Tamer E., married G. W. Hickman, and they with their four children live on a farm near Newton; James P. died in December, 1860, at the age of twenty-one years; Hugh L. is a prosperous farmer and lives near Newton; he and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah E. Green, have six living children; Stephen. C. married Eliza Trost, and they are the parents of nine children.

At the age of ten years our subject accompanied his parents to Iowa, where be received a practical education in the common schools. August. 23, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and participated in the battles of Fort Gibson, Vicksburg, Jackson, Champion Hills, the siege of Vicksburg and many other minor engagements. After having served actively for twenty-one months, he was taken ill and sent to the hospital at New Orleans, from which he was discharged on account of disability March 23, 1864. His brother Hugh was in the same company and regiment and served for three years.

Returning from the service, our subject resumed farming operations, in which he continued engaged until 1882. At that time he and his sister, who is now and ever has been a member of his home, took a trip to California, remaining in the Golden State for two years and enjoying a much needed relaxation from labor. Upon their return to the home farm, they resumed the usual routine of agricultural work, continuing thus engaged until 1890, when they went to the city of Newton to make their home. Mr. Moffitt was interested in the Newton Roller Mills, also in a store operated by the same company, of which he was a stockholder and director. Returning to his farm in 1892, he and his sister have since lived here, surrounded by every comfort conducive to happiness and blessed by the affection and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances.

There are doubtless few residents of Jasper County whose possessions aggregate an amount larger than those of Mr. Moffitt, who is the owner of about one thousand acres of valuable land and is numbered among the wealthiest residents of Newton Township. A Republican in political preferences, he has been chosen on his party ticket to serve in various local offices of trust, including the position of Township Trustee, in which he served with efficiency. A member of the Grange, he is influential in its councils and policy. He and his maiden sister are bound to each other by strong ties of affection, and their thoughts and opinions are in the same channel. They do not believe in religion as taught in the churches, but are followers of Tom Payne, Robert Ingersoll and others of that class of men usually denominated infidels. However, they believe in doing good unto all mankind, and arc generous with their large means and kind and helpful to all in need. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 217.