William Smith Eppard

BEENEY, EPPARD, JETT, LEEPER, MABBITT, MEADOWS, SULGROVE, YOUNG

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 9/28/2004 at 16:37:22

“The History of Madison County, Iowa”
Union Historical Company, Des Moines, 1879
page 629

Wm. S. Eppard of Jackson township is a farmer living on Section 9, P.O. Dexter. He was born in Page county, Virginia, January 2, 1845, where he lived until 1866, when he removed to this county. He was married to Mary C. Meadow, of Page county, Virginia, September 20, 1866. By this union they have six children and two dead: Evaline M. J., Sarah E. F., Jacob Henry, Lydia M. G., Lillie V. M., Charlotte D., Willard Mc., and Clarence M.; Jacob and Charlotte died in infancy. He owns 320 acres of land with good improvements, located on South Branch of North River, sheltered by a magnificent natural grove on the northwest and a Maple grove on the south. He has a splendid orchard of apples, cherries and pears. This extensive farm is all under cultivation, and is finely located for stock-raising, to which Mr. Eppard gives a great deal of attention.
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“History of Madison County Iowa and Its People”
Herman A. Mueller, Supervising Editor
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915

William S. Eppard, a well known farmer and stockman residing on section 9, Jackson township, was born in Page county, Virginia, on the 2d of January, 1844. His parents, John and Mary M. (Smith) Eppard, were both born in that county, the father in 1814 and the mother on the 22d of November, 1816. John Eppard was a farmer in the Old Dominion and passed away in that state in 1864. His wife survived for many years and died in this county in January, 1913.

William S. Eppard was the seventh in order of birth in a family of eleven children and as a boy assisted his father with the farm work. His education was that afforded by the district schools, which were somewhat primitive, the schoolhouse being a log structure; the furniture very crude; the curriculum limited; and the term but a few months in the year.

When sixteen years of age Mr. Eppard hired out as a farm hand and when eighteen years old left Virginia with twenty-five companions on account of a conscription law which had been passed. His only effects were a blanket and a few provisions, but these sufficed him and he succeeded in slipping through the rebel and Federal lines, reaching Harpers Ferry on the 18th of February, 1864. He entered the employ of the Federal government and drove a six-mule team by a jerk line until July, 1864. He then worked in the harvest fields in Pennsylvania and afterward entered the car shops at Harrisburg, that state. He was also employed for a time in the government warehouse there.

In 1865 he joined a brother in Iowa and for a short time attended school in Madison county. He then put in one crop here, after which he returned to Virginia and worked in a colliery and at cutting timber for railroad ties until the 20th of September, 1866, when his marriage occurred. Soon afterward he brought his bride to Iowa by boat from Wheeling to Keokuk and settled in this county a mile from his present home.

In 1868 he became a landowner and in the succeeding years added to his holdings until he now has seven hundred and fifty-two acres in Madison county, four hundred acres in Adair county and thirty acres in Dallas county, besides a number of lots in the town of Blunt, South Dakota.

He has done quite a little toward raising the grade of stock raised in this county, especially horses, breeding thoroughbred Shire horses, upon which he has won prizes at the Madison county fairs. He is a member of the American Shire Horse Breeders Association of Winona, Illinois. He also raises cattle and hogs for the market. He is one of the men of affluence of his county and has other interests besides his real estate, being a stockholder in the Iowa State Live Stock Insurance Company of Des Moines and in the Creston, Macksburg, Des Moines & Southern Railroad.

On the 20th of September, 1866, Mr. Eppard married Miss Mary Meadows, who was born in Page county, Virginia, in 1838, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Jett) Meadows. Her father was a landowner and farmer. Mrs. Eppard was the sixth in order of birth in a family of twelve children, and by her marriage she has become the mother of eight: Evalina, who is the wife of W. S. Sulgrove, a farmer of Jackson township, by whom she has six children; Sarah, who gave her hand in marriage to Anthony Mabbitt, a miller of Redfield, Dallas county, by whom she has four children; Jacob Henry, who died in infancy; Lydia, the wife of Jesse Leeper, a farmer of Penn township, and the mother of three children; Lillie V. who married Robert Young, a farmer, and has one child; Charlotta D., who died in infancy; Willard M., born June 6, 1876, who is in the ice business in Redfield, Iowa, and who has four children; and Clarence M., whose natal day was the 26th of February, 1878. He received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from Drake University of Des Moines and the degree of S. T. B. from Harvard. He was formerly pastor of the Christian church of Highland park, of Des Moines, and of Clarinda, Iowa, but is now assisting in the management of his father's farm. He married Leanore M. Beeney of Des Moines, and has two children, Trewa E. and Marjorie E.

Mr. Eppard supports the Republican party at the polls and takes a leading part in the civic affairs of his township. For twenty years he has been president of the school board and is one of the most public-spirited and progressive men of his township. Because of failing health he is not now quite as active as he was formerly, but his interest in the general welfare has not lessened. He is not only highly esteemed because of his ability and integrity but is also popular as he has a frank, pleasing personality.

Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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