MYERS, JUSTUS M. T.

MYERS, KERN, OWENS, ZESCH, ORRIENECKE, AUXER, DEITZ, BOWDITCH, AUSTIN, DUNN, DODGE, HALL, CASTLE

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 5/12/2019 at 22:49:58

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP

MYERS, JUSTUS M. T., farmer and naturalist. Sec. 34 ; P. O. Fort Madison : born in Perry Co., Ohio, May 3, 1842. and the following October came with his parents to Lee Co., Ft. Madison, where his father, Joseph F., soon after established himself in the drug business ; continued for thirty-five years until the death of his wife in 1877 ; J. M. T. remained with his father, engaged in the store, until 1864; thence went to Illinois and remained four years; then farmed until 1871, when he married Miss Ann C, daughter of Thaddeus and Mary Kern, natives of Alsace, France ; emigrated to America, and were early settlers of Ohio, then of Lee Co.; her father died at Ft. Madison October, 1875; her mother is still a resident of that city ; she- was born March 11, 1851, at St. Paul, this county ; they first settled in Green Bay Tp., on the old Territorial or telegraph road from Ft. Madison to Burlington ; he soon after discovered in an elevation of the road opposite his house the skeletons of thirty-two human beings interred, each in a tomb of flat stones and apparently in a sitting posture ; these have since been distributed among different medical institutions of the States; Mr. Myers first began the study of natural history and geology when a child of 3 or 4 years, and appeared to have inherited a natural desire for that branch of science ; his talent for scientific re searches attracted the attention of U. S. Geologist David D. Owens, who persuaded his father (against his will) to allow him to continue his collections ; he has accumulated some 15,000 geo logical specimens and 2,000 distinct species (some rare and valuable ones) in entomology ; from that he branched off to ornithology ; he exchanged entomological and geological specimens with Prof. James Hall, of Albany, N. Y.; Dr. D. M. Castle, of Philadelphia; Frank Zesch, of Buffalo, N. Y.; Orrienecke, of the same place; Samuel Auxer, of Lancaster, Penn.; Deitz, of Hazelton, Penn.; Bowditch, of Brookline, Mass.; E. P. Austin, of Boston. Mass.; G. N. Dunn, of San Francisco ; G. W. Dodge, of Glcncoe, Neb.; he has exchanged from 300 to 500 specimens; among his relics, is a piece of the Mormon Temple, representing the hand of Gabriel, the sword which originally be longed to Jo Smith, the Mormon, a poisoned ball fired at Scott's men at the siege of Mexico, and a great number from the late war ; and ruins of Pompeii ; retaining his farm in Green Bay, in April last, he removed to his present place of residence, one mile north of the business center of Ft. Madison, where he owns his residence, with nine acres of land. They have three children— Mary L., born March 2, 1872; Catharine G., Sept, 25. 1875, and Joseph F., Jr., Dec. 25, 1877. He is a Democrat ; member of the Catholic Church, and a member of the Red-Ribbon Club at Ft. Madison.

Source: BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY IOWA
CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1879

Transcription typed/proofed as article was originally published in 1879