Lee, James

LEE, WEST, WHITCOMB, ROSE, DALEY, THRALKILD, DAVIS

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 9/14/2009 at 15:21:10

Lee, James

The life history of James Lee, an honored citizen of Newton, Jasper County, is that of a man who has lived for a high purpose and has succeeded because his efforts have been rightly directed, and now in the golden evening of his life he can look over the vista of the past and realize that, after all, the lines have been cast for him in pleasant places, and he faces the future with the calm assurance that all is well.

Mr. Lee is of sterling old New England stock, having been born in Bristol County, Massachusetts, June 30, 1831. He is the son of Stephen and Sarah (West) Lee, both natives of Massachusetts, in which state they were reared, educated, married and spent their lives on a farm, both being now deceased. They were the parents of eight children, James of this review being the only one living, although they all lived to be over fifty years of age.

James Lee grew to maturity in his native state and received a good public school education. Believing that the then new Middle West held peculiar advantages for the willing worker, he came to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1854, thence to Bremer County, Iowa, where he remained until 1856, when he moved to Bellevue, Nebraska, where he worked at the carpenter's trade. In 1858 he went to Colorado, where he remained three years, driving from Omaha to Denver, in 1858, the year in which the present great city of Denver was started. In 1861 he came to Jasper County, Iowa, and engaged in farming, which he followed successfully up to about twenty years ago when he retired from active work. He has also large interests in Nebraska and town property in Newton. He has been very successful in whatever he has been engaged, having always worked hard and managed well. His fortune will aggregate easily one hundred thousand dollars.

Mr. Lee was married first in 1862 to Sarah Whitcomb, who was born in Indiana and whose death occurred in 1884. To this union six children were born, one dying in infancy, namely: Marietta, wife of Rev. M. L. Rose, of Yakima, Washington; Cady died in infancy; Hon. C. G. is at present circuit judge of the district embracing Ames, Iowa, in which city he lives; Orpha is the wife of Dick Daley, of Newton, Iowa; James E. and Stephen A. also live in Newton. In 1885 Mr. Lee married Penelope Thralkild, a native of Missouri, who died in 1887.

In 1893 Mr. Lee was married to Eliza E. Davis, who was born in Indiana, but was reared in Iowa, to which state she was brought by her parents when a baby. To this union there was no issue. She was the daughter of C. M. Davis, an old settler and highly respected citizen of Jasper County.

Mr. Lee is a member of the Christian Church, of which he is an elder and a liberal supporter, in fact, a pillar. Mrs. Lee is also a faithful member of this church. He has held several minor Township offices, such as township treasurer and he has been school treasurer for many years in Kellogg Township where he lived on his farm before he moved to Jasper. He was also Township clerk and a member of the school board quite a while. Politically, he has supported both parties as his conscience dictated.

He has a beautiful, modern and commodious home on East Main Street, Newton, which was built in 1905. Here the many friends of the family frequently gather, always finding an old-time hospitality and good cheer prevailing.

Mr. Lee is a man whom to know is to honor, for he is a whole-souled, genial and genteel gentleman, widely read, an excellent conversationalist, a man who has kept abreast of the times and who has always stood ready to support those measures looking toward the general good of his community, and no man in the County is more popular or held in higher esteem; however, he is a plain, unassuming man, contented merely to be a good citizen of a good country. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1009