Dr. John H. Claypoole

KUYKENDALL, DEMING, GIBBS, EDWARDS, FLEMING

Posted By: Volunteer 4 Claypoole (email)
Date: 9/2/2008 at 12:59:27

CLAYPOOLE, John H., early Lee County Pioneer and Doctor; was born in Hampshire Co., Va., in 1789; son of Jeremiah and Blondenah (Kuykendall) Claypoole(1) and younger brother to George Claypoole of Lee County, Iowa. His twin brother, Isaac, died in Lee County in 1832.

At the age of seventeen his family was among the early land patentees of Indiana Territory with 230 acres in the Vincennes District north of the White River. At about this time, John began studying medicine with an uncle in what would become Knox County, Indiana. By 1816 he studied under Daniel Drake(2) at the first medical school west of the Applachian Mountains, Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.

With his medical degree in hand, Dr. Claypoole then made an extensive tour through the Southern country, and settled near St. Louis(3); after which, due to his health failing, he removed to Lee Co, Iowa in about 1836-1838 to join his brother George that had settled here a few years earlier. Dr. Claypoole located on a farm near Fort Madison and in 1840, he retired to the city and resigned his practice, in which he had been eminent. With his first wife, Elizabeth Ann, who died in early womanhood, he had two daughters: Sarah Elizabeth, wife of Anson Deming and Mary Eliza, wife of Benjamin Gibbs both reside in Lee County. With his second wife, Bridget, who immigrated from Ireland, he had four sons: George T. served with the 7th Infantry as Corporal in the Civil War, married Ella Folsom and resides in Plymouth County; John H. of Lee County who married Martha Edwards; and two children died young Benjamin T. and Charles.

It is well known that Dr. Claypoole also assumed the care and education of three orphaned families, and was in the habit of having in school two or three beneficiaries -- the children of the widowed and unfortunate.

He was the founder of Claypoole Lodge(4) at Fort Madison, which was a monument of his zeal and labor in behalf of the ancient Order, in which he held various offices. He died in 1866, an irreparable loss to his family and friends, and, as was fitting, was buried with Masonic honors. Although not a member of any church, he was a man of profound religious convictions, and a regular attendant upon the ministrations of the sanctuary.

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This bio was based on “The History of Lee County” Chicago: Western Hist. Co., 1879;Page 854, and expanded with qualified data that is technologically available as of 2008 from that bio who's subject was his son, J.H. Claypoole. That bio can also be found on this Lee County Iowa Genealogy site.

(1) This line of the Claypoole/Claypole/Claypool family descends from Norton Claypoole (1640-1688) an early Planter in Delaware. Family Tradition has long claimed royal lineage and does so through marriage in 1586 of Adam Claypool to Dorothy, the daughter of Robert Wingfield of Upton. Two generations later, Adam's grandson John Claypole (1623-1688) married Elizabeth Cromwell (1629-1658) in 1646. She was the sixth child of Oliver Cromwell that became England’s Supreme Ruler of the State, Lord Protector. John’s brothers Norton and James were early planters and progenitors of the Claypoole family in America. Norton arriving in 1681 and James follows a few years later as part of William Penn’s Quaker group settling in Pennsylvania. Norton settled in Delaware and his descendants participated in the Revolutionary War and thereafter removed to Virginia. The next generation became Pioneers of the Indiana Territory in 1806 which later opened up as Illinois and is the lineage that the Lee County Iowa Claypoole family descends.

(2) Daniel Drake was a renowned professor of medicine from Ohio and taught Materia medica, an early form of pharmacology. He later published works and lectured on the treatment of cholera.

(3) From 1831-1834 Dr. Claypoole purchased 240 acres of patented land in St. Clair County, IL.

(4) Fort Madison Masonic Order of Claypoole Lodge was Chartered June 2, 1847. Dr. John H. Claypoole served such offices as 1851 Grand Senior Warden; Grand Treasurer 1855; 1856 Senior Warden; 1857 Grand Master; 1858 Past Master; and Worshipful Master in 1865.

Hickory Grove/Cherry Grove Cemetery
 

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