Isaac G. Houk

HOUK, SARGEANT, WYLIE

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/7/2004 at 12:53:11

I. G. Houk, Winterset; the subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears elsewhere, was born in Wellsburg, Brook county, West Virginia, in 1812; when about eight years of age he removed with his parents to Ohio; four years later his father died; at the age of sixteen, he went to Canton, Ohio, and served five years as an apprentice at the saddler's trade; he then worked as a journeyman for about three years, and afterward engaged in business for himself in Millersburg, Ohio, where he continued to live for about thirteen years; in 1850 he came from Millersburg to Winterset along with a number of others; it will thus be seen he was a member of the noted "Holmes county clique"; he early engaged in real estate operations in Madison and other counties; careful management and judicious investments made him very successful; he was frequently called into official service, he was very popular with the people, and when a candidate the opposing party had to put up its very best candidate in order to have any show of success; he was one of the heroes of the famous tie election, of which a full account has been given in the foregoing pages; he was one of the organizers and stockholders of the Citizens' National Bank, and has been one of its directors since the organization; he has been twice married, the first time to Miss Louisa Sargeant, a native of Ohio, in which State she died in 1842; he afterward married Mrs. Mary C. Wylie, whose maiden name was Campbell; she was born in Virginia; the colonel has one son, Lester C., by this marriage; by his first marriage he had a son, Irwin, whom he lost by death; he is one of the old settlers of Madison county, and can remember nearly all of the period covered by the county's history; he has attained a large measure of success and gained an enviable place in the confidence of its people; consequently he can look back to the past and review his early struggles and hardships with much of that feeling of satisfaction which most men experience only in their hopes for the future; he has probably many years of life before him, but when the end comes, it will close with an honest and worthy record.

Taken from the book, "The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1879" pages 538, 539