Joseph Hughes Mack

BONHAM, FARNSWORTH, HIXSON, MACK, TOWNSEND

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/14/2005 at 20:29:36

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

Dr. Joseph H. Mack was the founder of the town of Macksburg which bears his name, and there was no essential feature relative to the material, intellectual and moral progress of the community that did not receive his endorsement and support. He was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, October 18, 1837, and was but five years of age when in November, 1842, his parents removed to Coshocton, Ohio. They were in very limited financial circumstances, so that at the age of ten years he started out to make his own way in the world, beginning work on the Parks farm in his home neighborhood. His duties began early and continued until late in the evening, and he was paid only one dollar per month and his board for the first six months. The following year, in addition, he was given a suit of clothing and the privilege of attending school for three months in the year. He accompanied the Parks family to Greene county, Indiana, in 1852 and there worked upon the farm until the fall of 1855, attending school a part of two winters. At that time he returned to Ohio, where he again attended school, and it was at that period of his life that he formed the acquaintance of Miss Hannah J. Bonham, who became his wife three years later.

In the spring of 1856 Mr. Mack went to Crawford county, Illinois, where he secured employment in a sawmill, but being ambitious to engage in other work his leisure hours were devoted to the study of medicine. Two years later he came to Madison county, Iowa making the journey by steamboat to Des Moines. The condition of the roads and the streams made it impossible for him to continue his journey to Winterset by stage, which was the only means of transportation, so carrying his oilcloth grip upon his shoulder, he started on foot, proceeding to the old sawmill on the north bank of Raccoon river, which was under water to the second floor. With other travelers he started across the river in a hog trough made from a hollowed log. The swollen stream and rapid current made it difficult to effect a landing on the south bank, but eventually this was accomplished and on foot Mr. Mack proceeded to Winterset and thence to the home of Alexander Bonham in Grand River township, who had removed from Ohio in November, 1857. As he understood the sawmill business he took charge of the Barker sawmill on Grand River, seeing, as he believed, the opportunities for a successful future.

He was married on the 22d of August, 1858, to Miss Hannah J. Bonham, and the young couple started out upon their domestic life near the mill. He believed himself possessed of eighty dollars at the time of his marriage, but found that three twenty-dollar bills issued by the Citizens Bank of Gosport, Indiana, were worthless because of the failure of the bank. So he started out in married life with no resources but determination, energy and pluck and the help of a devoted wife. He went into the timber and cut saw logs, worked by the day to pay for hauling them to mill, sawed them into lumber and then with his own hands built his house, which was the first frame residence in Grand River township. He also made nearly all of his own furniture, including a cupboard, stand, table and rocker still in possession of the family. In order to pay for his first chairs he split rails at from thirty-five to fifty cents a hundred. All during this time Mr. Mack never relinquished his desire to prepare for the medical profession, and in the spring of 1861 he and his family traveled by wagon back to Ohio, where he completed his studies, attending lectures at the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati, after which he returned to Grand River township and began the practice of medicine. In the early part of 1864, however he felt his duty to his country was paramount to all else and, enlisting, was appointed hospital steward of the Forty-seventh Regiment of Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until mustered out at the close of the war. He then resumed the active practice of his profession at his home in Grand River township, Madison county, Iowa. He followed his profession successfully for nearly twenty years, when ill health forced him to seek other employment and he turned his attention to stock-raising, at one time owning one of the finest herds of shorthorns in the country.

In 1873 Dr. Mack laid out the town of Macksburg and gave to the town the ground comprising the public square, around which the business portion of the town is located, and on which he planted shade trees which are now large and beautiful. His generosity was further shown in his gift of four lots to theBaptist and Methodist churches, together with two hundred dollars in money to each and later he gave to the Methodist church two lots and a house for a parsonage. He stood for progress and improvement at all times and in the spring of 1874 he superintended the building of the township high school at Macksburg. There being no money in the school treasury the undertaking was strongly discouraged, but Dr. Mack, determined upon success, bought and paid for all material and rapidly pushed the building to completion in spite of predictions of failure, and took the township's obligations for his pay. He felt that if good schools and religious institutions were established other good things would follow. He served on the township school board during the erection of more than two-thirds of the schoolhouses in Grand River township.

His life was characterized by the highest principles and the loftiest motives. He was a stanch advocate of the cause of temperance and it was only once in the history of Macksburg that a saloon was there to be found. During Dr. Mack's absence from home, a stranger established a saloon in the town, but when the Doctor returned he energetically set to work to make way with the nuisance. He presented to the owner a petition, signed by nearly every citizen, asking him to leave at once, which he refused to do, although Dr. Mack offered to buy his stock. About that time, by a pre-arranged plan of Dr. Mack's, eighteen ladies marched into the saloon and soon convinced the proprietor that he should sell. Dr. Mack then paid for the "wet goods," which the ladies carried into the street and deposited upon a huge bonfire. This was the first and only saloon ever located in Macksburg. Dr. Mack personally paid the saloonkeeper seventy-five dollars for his stock of goods. The Methodist minister and some of the citizens, thinking this unjust, reimbursed Dr. Mack with thirty dollars. This sum, however, he used in having the village incorporated, so that a vote of the people would be necessary before another saloon could be opened.

Another important work with which Dr. Mack was connected was the building of a railroad. When he laid out the town he felt that a road would soon be built and used every effort to accomplish this. He was a director in the Woolson proposed road and gave practically all his time one summer and several hundred dollars to the undertaking, but the plan was abandoned. He was very active in efforts to promote the Des Moines, Winterset & Creston Electric Railroad, and just as success seemed to be in sight he passed away, but this project was subsequently abandoned. During the later years of his life Dr. Mack largely devoted his time to the supervision of his farm lands. His holdings were extensive, making him the heaviest taxpayer in Grand River township. He was a stockholder and vice president of the Anchor Fire Insurance Company of Des Moines. He was one of the organizers of the Macksburg National Bank and held the office of vice president at the time of his death, having served in that capacity for several years.

Dr. Mack passed away March 16, 1908; his widow, Hannah J. Mack, survives and lives in Macksburg, Iowa. Two children died in infancy and their living children are: Sarah A., the wife of Milton K. Farnsworth, of Wichita, Kansas; Allie M., the wife of Fred C. Herren, of Grand River township; Onie B., the wife of Lew H. Hixson, of Des Moines, Iowa; and Artie B., the wife of Ed L. Townsend, of Des Moines, Iowa.

In his political views Dr. Mack was a stalwart republican from the time he cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He never faltered in his allegiance to the party and he was a delegate to many county conventions. At one time he was elected by a large majority to the office of county coroner, but did not fill the position on account of the demands of his practice. Later he was elected to represent his county in the twenty-second and twenty-third general assemblies and made a most creditable record as a member of the house of representatives being instrumental in securing the passage of the “consent law,” a law to regulate the powers of the state board of equalization; the senate bill to stop the Bohemian oats swindle and a law to reduce the legal rate of interest from ten to eight percent. The last two bills are on the statutes at the present time.

Dr. Mack was a most earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church and took an active part in all branches of its work. He and his wife provided for the perpetual support of a minister in India by giving an endowment fund of two thousand dollars, and he generously supported missionary and temperance work and many other benevolent causes. In his passing he left behind him the memory of an upright life, a life fraught with good deeds and embodying the highest principles. Honor was his watchword and he never deviated from a course which he believed to be right between himself and his fellowmen. It is said that the good men do lives after them, and the influence of Dr. Mack is still felt by those who were his associates, his example remaining as a source of inspiration and his memory as a benediction to all with whom he came in contact. Of him it might be written:

"His life was noble, and the elements
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world: This was a man."

Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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