Edmund W. Harrell

HARRELL, HOLMES, JOHNSON, PECK

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/7/2004 at 10:28:53

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

Among the farmers of Madison county who achieved success in their chosen occupation is numbered Edmund W. Harrell, who was born in Jackson county, Indiana, June 13, 1828, a son of William and Mary (Peck) Harrell, both of whom passed away in Scott township, this county. In 1852 their son came to Madison county, arriving here on the 27th of Pctober and settling in Scott township. The first winter of his residence here he worked in the old Buffalo mills. He then operated land on section 22 for a man named Dryden and later bought a quarter section of government land on section 30, Scott township. As he lacked the necessary equipment for cultivating his land he traded eighty acres to his brother for a team and machinery, but when prosperity had come to him he repurchased the land. He added another forty acres, thus bringing his holdings to two hundred acres, and from year to year made improvements upon his place and kept his fields in a high state of cultivation. He found general farming and stock-raising profitable and congenial and never had cause to regret his decision to make agriculture his life work.

On the 18th of March, 1860, Mr. Harrell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Margaret Johnson, whose birth occurred in Fountain county, Indiana, on the 31st of December, 1839. Her parents were William and Mary Johnson, the former of whom died in Colorado and the latter in Scott township, this county. For twenty years before her death, which occurred on the 17th of March, 1904, Mrs. Harrell was an invalid, but her sufferings had no power to rob her of her serenity and cheerfulness of spirit. Pillowing her demise Mr. Harrell made his home with their daughter, Mrs. J. W. Holmes, in Scott township and his death occurred in Winterset, where she was living at the time, on the 26th of October, 1914, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. To him and his wife were born four children: A. M., who was married and lived in Lincoln township but passed away in 1900; Eva, who died in childhood; Edgar, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; and Elvira, the wife of J. W. Holmes.

Mr. Harrell was a democrat and held a number of local positions of trust but had no political aspirations in the wider sense. His wife was a consistent member of the Christian Union church and although he was not identified with any religious denomination, his life was guided by principles of justice and charity. He lived in this county for sixty-two years and at the time of his death was one of its oldest residents. His account of the development that he had witnessed
here was most interesting and instructive, bringing to mind the courage and determination of the early settlers and inspiring a sense of gratitude to them.

Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen