William J. Gracey

BRATTON, GOODRICH, GRACEY, HOCK, HUNT, JONES, MARQUIST, MCGAHEY, SCOTT, SINN, STEAMAN

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 6/29/2006 at 08:59:56

Although William J. Gracey is still living upon a farm on section 33, Ohio township, he has retired from active life and is enjoying a period of leisure. He was born in Boone county, Illinois, on the 11th of February, 1841, a son of James Taggart and Alipher (McGahey) Gracey. The father was born in North Carolina, of Irish ancestry, and the mother in South Carolina, also of Irish stock, but their marriage occurred in Boone county, Illinois. In 1856 they located in Ohio township, Madison county, Iowa, where the father entered one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 34. He devoted the remainder of his life to its cultivation and both he and his wife passed away upon the homestead.

William J. Gracey remained under the parental roof until the outbreak of the Civil war and attended the public schools in the acquirement of an education. After he became old enough he worked upon the homestead during the summers and thus early became familiar with agricultural pursuits. On the 26th of September, 1861, when a young man of twenty years, he enlisted at Osceola, Iowa, in Company I, Fifteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Read, and he participated in the battles of Shiloh, Bolivar, Tennessee, and Iuka, Jackson and Corinth Mississippi, and was also under fire in a number of skirmishes On the 23d of February, 1865, he was mustered out at St. Louis and honorably discharged from military service after which he returned to Madison county, Iowa, where he resumed farming. In 1868 he removed to the farm where he now has and in 1869 purchased forty acres. He subsequently added eighty acres and now owns a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres. The advance in the price of and is illustrated by the fact that he paid five dollars an acre for the first forty acres, ten dollars for the next forty and sixty dollars for the last forty acres that he purchased. He operated his farm until 1900, when he rented it to his son and he and his wife are now living in honorable retirement upon the homestead. He was a general farmer and stock-raiser and as he was industrious and enterprising and as he avoided extravagance he added to his capital from time to time and now has sufficient of this world's goods to insure him of comfort during the remainder of his life.

In April 1868, Mr. Gracey married Miss Rebecca E. Bratton, a daughter of Jacob and Mary Ann (Hunt) Bratton. To Mr. and Mrs. Gracey have been born the following children. Mary Levisa married John Goodrich, a farmer of Clarke county this state, and they have six living children, Jesse, Lillian, Rosa, Elmer, Ray Frank and Harry. Emery, a farmer of Clarke county, married Miss Emma Sinn and they have three children living, Lester, Lewis and Harold. Alonzo, a farmer of Ohio township, married Ada Scott, who died leaving a son Cleland. Following her demise he was again married, his second wife being Miss Lillian Marquist. Frank, an agriculturist of Ohio township married Miss Susie Jones, by whom he has four children, Doyle, Pansy, Merrill and Benton. Bert born March 10, 1880, resides upon the homestead with his parents. He married Miss Grace Jones and they have three children, Glenn, Isabelle and Blanche. Herman, born April 16, 1882, is now farming near Osceola, Iowa. He married Miss Gertrude Hock and following her demise wedded Miss Emma Steaman. He is the father of two children, Cleo and Dale.

Mr. Gracey is a democrat and for four years was a director of school district No. 6. He is a sincere Christian and holds membership in the Church of God at Prairie Grove, as does his wife. He was one of the organizers of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Truro and continued to belong to that organization until it surrendered its charter. For forty-seven years he and his wife have lived upon the homestead and they have many interesting reminiscences of events and conditions of the early days in this county. He hauled lumber from John Smith's sawmill at Prairie Grove to build the first courthouse in Osceola and with Tom Glascow played the violin for a dance in the courthouse when it was completed. As Mr. Gracey was in his younger days one of the best known violinists of Madison county, his services were in demand m St. Charles, Winterset, Murray, Osceola and other places and he sometimes played for as many as five dances in a week. His wife picked blackberries on Squaw creek and took them into Osceola, but the people there did not know that they were edible having never seen any before. She had used them in Ohio and when she found them growing wild in Clarke county recognized them. For many years Mr. Gracey and his wife were numbered among those who in doing well the work that fell to their lot in the development of their farm aided in the advancement of agricultural interests of the county. They are now living retired, however, and their son Bert farms the homestead. He raises a good grade of shorthorn cattle and Duroc Jersey hogs, which he feeds and sells, and he also carries on general farming, meeting with deserved success in both phases of his work.

Taken from the book, "The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915," by Herman Mueller.