Dexter Howard

BINNS, HOWARD, JOHNSON, LAMB, MOORE

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/3/2004 at 11:23:37

Dexter Howard, who was one of the earliest settlers of Madison County, was born in New York in 1822 and when thirty years of age made the overland journey to this county by wagon. He entered a claim from the government and lived upon his farm until his death, which occurred in 1887 when he was sixty-five years of age. He brought all of his land under cultivation and as he was energetic and industrious he was rewarded by bounteous harvests. In the days before the herd law went into effect he let his stock run on the open prairie and raised a large number of head annually. He continued to engage in farming and stock-raising until called to his reward and was highly respected by those who knew him.

On the 24th of September, 1852, the third marriage certificate in Madison County was issued, authorizing the marriage of Dexter Howard and Elizabeth Moore. The bride was born in Scott County, West Virginia, on the 11th of November, 1831, a daughter of Henry and Tracia (Lloyd) Moore. Her father was born in that state in 1794 and served in the War of 1812. In 1834 he removed with his family to Indiana, where he resided until his death. Subsequently his wife and children came to Madison County, Iowa, arriving here in 1852. Mr. Howard was very active in all community affairs and helped to build the first Church of Christ erected in Winterset, which was then but a small village. He possessed the courage and resolution characteristic of all true pioneers and as obstacles arose his determination increased to accomplish his purpose in spite of them.

In 1895 Mrs. Howard became the wife of John B. Lamb, who took up his residence in Des Moines County, Iowa, in 1848 and in Madison County four years later. For twenty-one years he worked in the old Buffalo Mills. At the time of the Civil war he gave indubitable proof of his patriotism by enlisting in Company E, Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry for service in defense of the Union.

When Mrs. Lamb first came to this county, in 1852, she resided in Winterset, which was but a small settlement. The log house in which she lived after her marriage was one of the first built in Webster township and both it and its furnishings were extremely crude compared with those of the present day although at the time they were considered very good. There were all kinds of game in abundance and as houses were still relatively far apart, her home was often the stopping place for hunters. In the early days when the usual breadstuff was cornmeal, wheat flour was a luxury and she baked the first biscuit in the county. It was not uncommon then for her to walk twelve miles to Winterset and the first time she rode to town, she rode in a wagon behind an ox team and sat on a beam across the wagon box. She did much spinning and made all of the cloth used in the clothing of the family, as well as did the sewing for the family. There was no phase of pioneer life with which she was not acquainted and the many privations that are inseparable from life on the frontier served merely to make the greater her power of endurance and to make yet stronger her naturally forceful character. She has always been a devout Christian, is a member of the Church of Christ and is held in the highest honor by all who know her. She is the oldest living settler in the township and makes her home with a grandson. Two of her children are residing in this county, Mrs. Nathan Binns and Mrs. Matt Johnson. To her and to her generation the county owes a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, for it is due to such as she that it now enjoys abounding prosperity and all the comforts of civilization.

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