Tool, John M.

TOOL, STINSON, FROST, FLENOR, MCCLERY, HILL, DELONG, FOUST, MITCHELL, MOORE, PAUL, CARWILE, MATEER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 11/29/2008 at 18:08:29

TOOL, John M.
Monroe; born in Washington Co., Va. in 1832; in 1836, his parents moved to Illinois; thence to Jefferson Co., this State, in 1841, where they remained two years; at the end of that time, they moved to this county, our subject moving with them. He married Miss Jane E. PAUL in Mahaska Co., this State; she was a native of Indiana. They have had five children, three of whom are living. Mr. TOOL as ordained minister of the M. E. Church by the M. E. Conference in Des Moines. ~ Fairview Township Biographies "The History of Jasper County" (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878)
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Hon. John M. Tool

The official work of this gentleman has extended over a number of years and has brought him before the notice of the citizens of Jasper County, and in him his constituents have found a man of ability and integrity, and one whose activities have ever been employed for the good of the community. He is a native of the grand old State of Virginia. He was born in Washington County, November 12, 1832, to the union of Adam M. and Susan H. (Stinson) Tool, both natives of Virginia, the former born in Augusta County, July 3, 1794, and the latter in Washington County, October 31, 1800, and of Scotch descent.

The father of our subject was of Scotch-Irish descent, his father having been born in the North of Ireland. At an early date the latter came to this country and settled in Augusta County, Va., where he died in 1810. Adam M. Tool, second in order of birth of three sons, and his eldest brother, John, was one of the very early pioneers of Woodford County, VA. The other brother, Jacob, remained in Virginia; he was a cabinet-maker by trade, and became wealthy. In 1817 Adam M. Tool married Miss Stinson and resided in his native state until seven children were born, five daughters and two sons. Eliza Jane, born October 10, 1818, married John Frost and died June 27, 1841. Mary, born January 10, 1821, married Washington Flenor, who died in 1848; her second marriage was with James McClery, and she now lives in Oberlin, Kan., where her daughter, Emma, is County Superintendent of Schools of Decatur County. Susan Adeline, born December 18, 1822, married Willard Hill, who was a soldier in the regular army, and who was killed by a horse at Santa Fe during his service in 1847; she married the second time, in 1852, William Delong, and they now reside in Colorado; three sons and one daughter were born of this union. James A., born June 12, 1825, married Sarah Foust, and in 1848 took a claim four miles east of Monroe, where he now resides. M. Elizabeth, born August 22, 1827, married the Hon. Henry B. Mitchell, a man of considerable prominence; be was Supervisor in Jefferson County, a member of the State Legislature, and now lives at Fairfield. Martha C., born February 22,1830, married Wyley W. Moore, and died March 25,1857. He and his daughter now live in Des Moines.

In 1837, when our subject was but five years of age, his parents moved to Coles County, IL, where they resided for five years, and then came to the Hawkeye State, settled west of Fairfield and near the Indian boundary line. On the 23rd of April 1843, seven days before the territory embracing Jasper County was opened for settlement, Adam M. Tool and several others started out to find a location in the new country. They made their way to the present site of the village of Monroe, where Mr. Tool placed his stake, and 1851 he laid out the town of Monroe. This pioneer settler erected the first hewed log house in Jasper County, and in Monroe passed the balance of his days, his death occurring April 4,1877.

Mrs. Tool was the first Postmistress in the county. They kept a hotel the early days, and their home was headquarters for all the travelers. Mrs. Tool was a woman of more than ordinary education and a devoted Christian. She died January 28, 1862. Previous to his marriage, Mr. Tool served faithfully in the War of 1812.

Our subject was but eleven years of age when his parents penetrated the wilderness of Jasper County, and from that time until the present he has resided here. The incidents in his early life were not materially different from those of other boys living on farms in the new country. He was taught to work at anything necessary for him to do, and to make himself useful around the pioneer homestead. As did other boys, young Tool attended school during the winters, and in summer assisted in clearing the land, fencing the fields and raising crops after the land was improved. Although his educational advantages were not of the best, he was a thorough student, and by close attention he mastered all the important branches. In early life he engaged in farming and trading in stock, and for a time was also engaged in merchandising.

The members of the Tool family as far back as we have any knowledge were Methodists, and our subject is no exception to the rule. In 1870 he was ordained to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and since that time has been a local preacher. In 1879 he was nominated for the Legislature, getting one hundred and nineteen votes out of one hundred and twenty-two cast, and served in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth General Assemblies. Oh the 19th of January 1854, he married Miss Jane Paul, the daughter of the Rev. Joseph Paul, Methodist Episcopal preacher. She was a native of the Hoosier State. One of her brothers, Thomas, is a Methodist Episcopal preacher at Walla Walla, Wash.

Mr. and Mrs. Tool were blessed with five children, two of whom died in infancy. Mary B., born June 22,1857, married A. C. Carwile and lives in Silver City, NM; Roscoe Paul, born December 13, 1863, married Miss Minnie Mateer April 4, 1889, and resides on a farm near Monroe, and C. E., born November 18, 1865, received his education in the college at Indianola, and is now a teacher in the public schools. The father of these children is a man of broad views, who has traveled extensively, and who is well informed. He has done much to benefit his fellow man. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA Page 142.