Conwell, Carlos

CONWELL, TOPPIN, WEBB, BOOTH, GUTHRIE

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 8/27/2009 at 18:26:50

Conwell, Carlos

The history of Jasper County, Iowa, is not a very old one. It is the record of the steady growth of a community planted on the wild, rolling prairies scarcely more than a half century ago and has reached its magnitude of today without other aids than those of industry. The people who redeemed it from the primitive wilds were strong-armed, hardy sons of the soil who hesitated at no difficulty and for whom hardships had little to appall. The early pioneers, having blazed the path of civilization to this part of the state, finished their labors, and many of them have passed from the scene, leaving the country to the possession of their descendants and to others who came at a later period and builded on the foundation which they laid so broad and deep. The Conwell family is of this class and its members have played no inconspicuous part in the up building of a portion of this county, a very creditable representative of the present generation being Carlos Conwell, who was born and reared here and who has spent his life in his native vicinity, having done what he could to develop and advertise to the world the wonderful resources of a County that now occupies a proud position among the most progressive and enlightened sections of Indiana.

Mr. Carlos Conwell was born in Jasper County, May 18, 1860, and he has always been identified with agricultural pursuits of his home district. His father, Clark D. Conwell, was born in 1822, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, there grew up, spent his early life and came in an early day to Iowa, and lived in this state until his death in Jasper County, on August 14, 1887. He married Rebecca Toppin, who was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, February 10, 1823, and there she grew to womanhood and they were married in their native State, and accompanied Mr. Conwell on the long overland trip to the new State of Iowa when it was being settled, and she reached an advanced age, dying in Jasper County on November 10, 1910. They had little of this world's goods when they arrived, but the soil was rich and they were not afraid of hard work, so they had a good little farm and a comfortable home in a few years. Their family consisted of seven children, one of whom died in infancy, the older ones having been born in Ohio, the three younger after the family came to Iowa; they were, R. C., born January 25, 1844, is living in Independence Township; Carlos of this review; Clark D., born April 14, 1867, lives in this Township; Mrs. Mary C. Webb is living in Baxter, Iowa; Mrs. J. S. Booth also lives in Baxter; Mrs. Sarah Guthrie, born March 10, 1864, lives at Andover, South Dakota. There are in this family twenty-one grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren.

Carlos Conwell supported and cared for his aged parents until their deaths. He has made a success of general farming and stock raising and has a neat little farm of fifty-nine acres, part of the old homestead, which he has kept well improved.

Politically, he is independent and he and his family affiliate with the Methodist Church. He is a member of Baxter Lodge No. 168, Knights of Pythias, at Baxter. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1180