SCHWARTZ, Abraham - 1890 Bio (1803-1891)

SCHWARTZ, OMER, PRATHER, REDMAN, JENKINS, GILLILAND, GLENN, LAUGHLIN, RODABAUGH, SMITH

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 8/24/2007 at 21:30:11

Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties, Iowa, Printed 1890 by Lake City Publishing Co., Chicago
Pages 296-297

Abram SCHWARTZ, of Libertyville, is numbered among the pioneers of Jefferson County. Few men in the community are more widely known, and it is with pleasure that we record in this volume a sketch of his life work. His paternal grandparents and his materal great-grandparents, as history records, came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania, and the latter were sold to pay their passage across the ocean. His parents, Christopher and Catherine (OMER) SCHWARTZ were both natives of Lancaster County, Pa., but in youth emigrated with their respective families to Kentucky, where they were married and began their domestic life. Subsequently, about 1813, they removed to Clark County, Ind. The father was a carpenter by trade, a life-long Democrat and a member of the Methodist Church, to which his wife also belonged. She died at the age of fifty years and Mr. SCHWARTZ reached the age of seventy-three.

Of the family of twelve children born to this worthy couple, our subject was the third in order of birth and the only one now living. He was born in Jefferson County, Ky., within two miles of Louisville, October 16, 1803, and was about ten years of age when the family moved to Indiana. As they located in a new settlement, little opportunity was afforded him for securing an education and his scholastic training was very meagre. In boyhood he learned the lessons of industry and enterprise, which have clung to him through life and have crowned his efforts with success. On the 16th of April, 1828, he wedded Elizabeth A. PRATHER, who was born in Clark County, Ind., September 19, 1810, a daughter of Lloyd and Nancy (REDMAN) PRATHER, who were natives of North Carolina and Maryland, respectively. Her mother was a sister of Reason REDMAN, who is said to have been the first white child born in Iowa. Mr. PRATHER was of Scotch (sic) extraction and his wife of German descent. He served under Harrison in the battle of Tippecanoe, and both he and Mrs. PRATHER died at an advanced age near Baldwin City, Kan.

After his marriage, Mr. SCHWARTZ settled on a farm in Clark County, Ind., where he remained until 1842, in which year he cast his lot with the pioneer settlers of Jefferson County, Iowa. He purchased a claim in what is now Liberty Township which he subsequently entered, and by hard work and good management increased the boundaries of his farm until it contained three hundred acres of which he retains two hundred and ten acres, highly cultivated and finely improved. He and his estimable wife began life on the Western frontier in true pioneer style. Their home was a log cabin, their conveniences were few and many of the comforts of to-day were almost unknown luxuries, but the grandeur of the broad prairies and the sociability of their neighbors compensated for the more comfortable home which they had left in Indiana. Although many hardships were to be endured and obstacles to be overcome, they labored on undaunted by such difficulties and their efforts have been rewarded with a liberal competence. Although both Mr. and Mrs. SCHWARTZ are now more than four-score years, they retain their health and faculties to a remarkable degree and have not yet had to call in assistance in performing their daily labors. In religious faith, this worthy couple are Dunkards, and their earnest, consistent Christian lives have won them friends without number. Three ballots Mr. SCHWARTZ cast for Gen. Jackson, and since that time has never wavered in his allegiance to the Democratic party.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. SCHWARTZ has been truly blessed, only one of their nine children having been called away. Susan, the eldest, is now the widow of James JENKINS, of Osceola, Clarke County, Iowa; William H., the next younger, is a farmer of Liberty Township; Nancy C. is the wife of Jesse GILLILAND, of Ringgold County, Iowa; Ann M. wedded Henry GLENN and how resides in Montana; Mary E. is the wife of Hugh LAUGHLIN, of Missouri; Eliza R. married Adam RODABAUGH, a resident of Liberty Township; Irene married Joseph SMITH, of Harrison County, Iowa; Cerelda C. is the wife of Stewart LAUGHLIN and the youngest of the family. The children all have comfortable homes and are respected citizens in the various communities in which they reside.

Mr. SCHWARTZ has made farming his chief occupation throughout life, though in early manhood he learned the butcher's trade at which he worked several years. Side by side, as man and wife, he and Mrs. SCHWARTZ have traveled life's journey for sixty-two years, and almost half a century has been spent by them in Jefferson County, where they have won not only material success, but what is far better, many friends and a name without reproach.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.

Note: Given name on his gravestone is Abraham, while this sketch uses the spelling Abram.