Henry Goodlow Neff 1834-1918

NEFF, STICKLER, ARNEY, HILSABECK, HAUSER, WEATHERLY, DEVINE, GRIGGS, WHITACRE

Posted By: C. Tucker (email)
Date: 11/19/2010 at 16:45:42

Evening Times Republican
Marshalltown, IA [Thursday 1-10-1918] p. 9

HENRY G. NEFF DEAD

---Pioneer of County Passes Away at Home in Albion---

Henry G. Neff, aged 83, one of the real pioneers of the county, and a resident of the Albion-Liscomb neighborhood since 1856, died at 5:20 o’clock this morning at his home in Albion of rheumatism and ailments induced by his advanced years. Mr. Neff had been in failing health for about seven years. For many years Mr. Neff was a farmer, but retired in 1894 and moved to Albion. He is widely known, especially throughout the northern part of the county. Henry Goodlow Neff was a native of Champaign county, Ohio, where he was born May 21, 1834, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Stickler Neff. Young Neff was reared to manhood in his native state and at the age of 22 took the advice of Horace Greeley and cam west, one of a party of five young men from Ohio. Neff’s introduction to Marshall county was on Oct. 9, 1856, when night overtook the members of the party near a farm house and Neff slept in a hay stack, to have his slumbers disturbed all night long by howling of prowling wolves seeking prey in the nearby timber and prairie. As Marietta then was the county seat that place was the objective of the Ohio men. As it developed Neff was the only one of the party to remain in the county, and he never regretted that he had the fortitude to brave the inconveniences of the then pioneer life. He went to work on a farm three miles north of what is now Albion, got his start by day labor on the farm and as a carpenter for Larkin & Price. Later, for three years, he worked for Solomon Arney, father of P. F. and Carey E. Arney on the Arney farm, now the home farm of C. E. Arney. On July 9, 1861, Mr. Neff took as his wife Miss Nancy Arney, a sister of Solomon Arney, and daughter of John and Mary M. Boyles Arney, who had come to this county in 1849. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Neff went to live on an eighty-acre farm about three miles south of Liscomb, where they remained until they moved to Albion. Mr. and Mrs. Neff were staunch supporters of and active workers in the Old Bethel church, and later became members of the present Bethel Grove church. Mr. and Mrs. Neff never had any children, but they adopted a son and daughter, and reared another boy. Their foster son is Carey H. Neff, of Liscomb township, who was a Hilsabeck, and Mrs. Mathias Hauser, of this city, who was Rosie Weatherly, and a sister of Mrs. W. S. Devine, of this city. The other boy, whom they reared but never legally adopted, is Bert Griggs, a son of Ephraim Griggs, who has been making his home with Mr. and Mrs. Neff and assisting in their care. In addition to his wife and foster children Mr. Neff is survived by three brothers, four half-brothers, and a half-sister. The brothers are Peter, John, and Joseph Neff, of Marion, Ind.; and the half-brothers and sister are Aaron, Jonas, Daniel, and Michael Neff, and Miss Emma Neff, of Urbana, O. Two of Mrs. Neff’s sisters were the late Mrs. John H. Hauser, mother of Mrs. Eliza Whitacre, of this city, and George and Lemert Hauser, of Bethel Grove, and the late Mrs. Jacob Hauser, mother of Mathias Hauser, of this city. Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon at 1:30 from the Methodist church at Albion, being preceded by a prayer service at the house at 1. Burial will follow in the Bethel Grove cemetery.