William Hartsook

BELL, DENNY, FORESMAN, HARTSOOK, HANN, LAIDLDY, LAKE, MACUMBER, MOORE, NEWELL, SCHOENENBERGER, SEILER, SMOOT

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/3/2004 at 11:15:03

“History of Madison County Iowa and Its People”
Herman A. Mueller, Supervising Editor
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915

William Hartsook has lived upon his present fine farm in Lincoln township for about sixty-one years and in the early days in this county met and overcame all of the difficulties and obstacles that confronted the first settlers. He was born in Gallia County, Ohio, on the 28th of December, 1828, a son of Peter and Ann (Wooten) Hartsook, the former born in Fredrick County, Maryland, in October, 1792, and the latter a quarter of a mile from the birthplace of her son William on the 17th of November, 1804. Her parents were Bell and Jane (Gilliand) Wooten, natives respectively of Scotland and Ireland. Our subject's paternal grandfather was William Hartsook, a native of Amsterdam, Holland, whence he and six brothers immigrated to America, settling first in Pennsylvania and later in Maryland. The grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war and did his part in securing the independence of the United States. In 1815, he removed to Ohio and continued to reside there until called by death.

Peter and Ann (Wooten) Hartsook were married in Ohio and in 1850 removed to Knox County, Illinois. Three years later they drove overland to Madison County, Iowa, reaching Lincoln township in October. During the first night spent in this county they were guests of Andrew H. Bertholf, who freely extended them the hospitality of his log house. As there were ten children in each of the families, there was much crowding, but that was a minor matter in pioneer days. Mr. Hartsook entered land from the government in Monroe township and settled upon his farm, devoting his remaining years to its cultivation. He served his country well as a soldier in the War of 1812. He passed away when seventy-two years of age, but his widow survived until she reached the advanced age of ninety. He was a member of the Lutheran Church, but she was a Presbyterian.

Peter and Ann (Wooten) Hartsook were the parents of thirteen children: Mary Jane, the deceased wife of Paul Moore, of Knox County, Illinois: Mahala, who died when a girl of sixteen: Amelia, who died in infancy; Sarah, deceased, who was the wife of John A. Macumber; William, of this review; Cynthia, the deceased wife of E. R. Denny, a resident of Oklahoma; Balser, who died in Kansas; Elizabeth and Hiram, both of whom died in infancy' Salem, who passed away while in the Union Army during the Civil War; Benjamin F., whose demise occurred in Monroe township, this county, and who is survived by a widow and hree children; David A., who passed away when twenty-two years old; and Melissa, who died in infancy.

William Hartsook spent his boyhood days in Gallia County, Ohio. At one time the family started to move to Indiana but stopped on the way somewhere near Dayton, Ohio. The mother, who was a woman of extraordinary determination, felt that the move was an unwise one and prevailed upon the family to return to Gallia County. It was necessary to hire a man to take their goods back, and as the family was in most limited financial circumstances, our subject paid the moving bill by binding oats and pulling beans four or five seasons. In 1874 he made a visit to his old home county and recognized the man who had moved them back to Gallia County. The man, however, did not recognize him until he asked if he remembered "the boy who was such a good bean puller."

Before he accompanied his parents to Iowa he worked upon the river and mad three trips to New Orleans, floating down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers on a flatboat of produce and returning by steamer. In 1850 he made a trip overland to California in search of gold, driving a mule team. More than once he narrowly escaped death on the long journey and on one occasion he and a companion were lost from the train and only accidentally located it in a clump of bushes, which hid all except, one corner of a the covered wagon. He remained in the Golden state for two and a half years but met with indifferent success.

Upon coming to Iowa in 1853 he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government, which he soon afterward traded, however, for the quarter section which had been entered by his brother-in-law, John A. Macumber. There was no sign of a building upon the place and the land was yet unbroken, but it had been his ambition for a long time to own land and he set to work to make out of this tract of wild prairie a cultivated farm. His energy and good judgment brought him success and he now owns two hundred and forty acres of land and has a splendid set of buildings upon the place. For about ten years after his marriage he and his wife lived in a one-room log house, sixteen by eighteen feet in dimensions, and the first improvement was the erection of a lean-to. On Christmas Day, 1869, they moved into their present residence, which is a well appointed farm house.

In 1860 in Lincoln township Mr. Hartsook was united in marriage to Miss Catherine R. Smoot, who was born in Knox County, Illinois, on the 11th of July, 1844, a daughter of James W. and Jemima (Wight) Smoot, the former born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, May 12, 1801 and the latter in Rush County, Indiana, January 6, 1823. They settled in Illinois but eventually removed to Madison county, Iowa, locating in Lincoln township, where the father died at the age of eighty years and the mother when seventy-eight years old. They were the parents of five children: Mrs. Hartsook; Adeline, now Mrs. Charles Laidley, of Madison township; Coleman, who was murdered near Montrose, Colorado; Albert, who is unmarried and who makes his home with Mr. and Mrs. Hartsook; and William N., of Centerville, Iowa.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hartsook have been born nine children: A. W. (Andrew William), a traveling salesman of Des Moines, who married Jane Seiler, by whom he has three children, Arthur, Robert and Fred: Elida, who died when twenty years of age; James W., a farmer of Adair County, Iowa, who married Miss Hettie Lake and has three children, Ralph, Lloyd and Fern; George, who passed away when but a young man of twenty-six years; F. P. (Frederick Peter), of Winterset, who married Miss Lavina Foresman, by whom he has a daughter, Helen; Nellie, the wife of Frank Bell, who is operating the farm belonging to our subject, and the mother of a son, Stanley; Sarah (Ellen), who gave her hand in marriage to Newton Newell, of Warren, Arkansas; Grace Adeline, the wife of Ralph T. Schoenenberger, a farmer of Scott township, by whom she has three children, Catherine, John and Paul; and Ben Butler, a farmer of Lincoln township, who married Miss Vernie Hann, by whom he has four children, Loraine, Howard, Curtis and Alice. Mr. and Mrs. Hartsook have fifteen grandchildren.

Mr. Hartsook and his wife have been members of the Christian Union Church in the neighborhood for years and have done much to promote the spread of its influence. He also belongs to Evening Star Lodge, No. 43, A. F. & A. M., of Winterset. He cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce and continued to support the Democratic party until he became one of the organizers of the
granger or greenback party, but is now a progressive Republican. For a number of terms he was township trustee and he lacked but one term of being school director for twenty years.

He celebrated the eighty-sixth anniversary of his birth on the 28th of December, 1914, and in 1910 he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding. He is not only one of the oldest men in the county but has probably lived longer on one farm than any other man within its limits. His health is still good and he can read newspapers without the aid of glasses. He and his wife are both very hospitable and are well liked as well as highly respected in their locality.

When returning from the gold fields of California Mr. Hartsook traveled by water, sailing through Lake Nicaragua. He contracted fever in the tropics and nearly lost his life on the Caribbean Sea. He not only has many interesting recollections of the life in the mining camps of California but also of conditions in Madison County in the pioneer days when the comforts and conveniences that are now taken as a matter of course were unheard of and when there was much to test a man's resolution and courage. His standard of life has always been high and the honored old age which he is enjoying is the direct result of his integrity and industry in the years gone by.

Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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