Jonathan Allen Gordon

CARMICHAEL, GILLILAND, GORDON, HOLLOWAY, KELLOGG, MARTIN, PRICE, SMITH

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/12/2004 at 22:21:56

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

Jonathan Allen Gordon, an old settler of Lincoln township, is a native of Ripley county, Indiana, born June 14, 1845. His parents, Ervin W. and Sarah (Gordon) Gordon, were natives of Pennsylvania but at an early day in the history of the middle west removed to Indiana, whence they came to Madison county, Iowa, arriving here on the 15th of October, 1852, after driving across the country with three teams. They crossed the Mississippi river by ferry at Fort Madison. The family home was established in Lincoln township, where the father entered eight or nine hundred acres of government land. He improved his property and lived upon the farm for about twelve years, but at the end of that time, having accumulated a competence, he removed to Winterset, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred in 1865. Two years later his wife also passed to the home beyond. Their children were six in number, namely: William who died in this county; Samuel A., a veteran of the Union army, who died in Adair county; Martha Jane, the deceased wife of Moses A. Carmichael, who fought in the Civil war; John N., familiarly known as Newt, who resides in Winterset; Sarah Ann, deceased, who married John W. Price, who has also passed away; and Jonathan Allen.

The last named passed the days of his boyhood and youth as did most boys upon farms at that time, attending the common schools during the winter months and helping with the farm work. After completing the course offered in the common schools he became a student in the Winterset high school, from which he was graduated. On the 15th of August, 1862, when but seventeen years of age he went to Davenport and joined his brother and brother-law Samuel A. Gordon and Moses Carmichael, who had enlisted for service m the Civil war as members of Company F, Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. On the 1st of November he was permitted to join the company as he was a drummer and fifer and his services could be used to advantage. On the 17th of August of the following year he returned home on a furlough on account of sickness and not long afterward was honorably discharged. He remained at home and for four years was engaged in teaching school. In 1868, on the day after Grant's election as president Mr. Gordon located on the tract of land which he has since cultivated. At that time it contained no buildings save a two room shanty. He enlarged the house, built a barn, set out a grove of evergreen trees and has from time to time added other improvements to the place. His wife owns eighty acres of good bottom land which she inherited from her father's estate.

On the 30th of September, 1865, Mr. Gordon was united in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Kellogg, who was born in Mahaska county, Iowa, a daughter of Miles and Elizabeth (Smith) Kellogg, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. She is the only one of their nine children who survives. To Mr. and Mrs. Gordon six children were born: Emmett, who died in infancy; Elmer a resident of this county, who married Mary Martin, by whom he has three children, Grace, Daisy and Mabel; Eleanor, who died in infancy; Edna, the wife of Otis Gilliland, of Douglas township, by whom she has a son, Cresley; Ellsworth, deceased, who married Rosa Holloway, by whom he had four children, Iris, Thelma and Elaine, who live with the subject of this review; while Cleta makes her home with her maternal grandparents at Winterset; and Essie, who passed away when three years old. Mr. Gordon has been a member of the First Christian church of Winterset for thirty years, and his life and influence have been factors m the moral development of his community. In his early manhood he voted the republican ticket, but in later years has been a democrat. He is a member of J. A. Pitzer Post, No. 55, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and enjoys the association thus made possible with his comrades of the Union army. Practically all of his life has been passed in this county and as his memory is clear and exact his accounts of the early conditions here and the subsequent development are of great value to the generation of today, which finds it difficult to conceive of the county as other than the prosperous and populous region that it is at the present time. The esteem and respect of his fellow citizens are accorded Mr. Gordon in full measure, and this high place in the estimation of those who have come in contact with him is richly deserved.

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