George E. Loyd

LOYD, MARTEN, STAPLETON

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/21/2007 at 21:46:14

Source: Monona County History 1890
Chicago National Pub Co.

George E. Loyd, a prominent and well-known farmer of St. Clair Township, and one of its largest land owners, came to this County in the Spring of 1874, and settled on eighty acres of land which he purchased on section 14. Having broken about forty acres of the prairie and constructed a shanty, which was partly a “dug-out,” he took up his home there, and for four years lived in that manner. Conquering adverse circumstances, he has gradually improved his condition until the little farm has expanded into nine hundred wide-spread acres, and the inconvenient shanty replaced by a modern cottage, neat and commodious.
Mr. Loyd was born in Washington County, Va., January 6, 1838, and is the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Marten) Loyd, natives of the “Old Dominion.” His father, Thomas Loyd, was born in Fauquier County, Virginia in 1813, his father, also Thomas Loyd, having been born in the same county, in 1761. When a young man, Thomas Loyd, Jr., the father of out subject, removed to Tennessee, where he made his home until 1850. In the latter year he removed to Iowa, and settled in Appanoose County, but in 1880 came to Monona County, where he is now living, hale and hearty, on his farm in St Clair Township, being now seventy-seven years old. He was twice married, the first time in 1834, to Miss Elizabeth Marten, and by this union was the parent of eleven children. His wife died in the spring of 1860, and in 1865, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Salinda Frast. Mr. G.E. Loyd’s great grandfather, also Thomas Loyd, was a native of Virginia, but his father, the great-great-grandfather of our subject, was born in England, and came to America when a young man in Virginia’s colonial days.
With his parents, when he was a child of but seven years of age, George E. Loyd removed to Hancock County, Tennessee but in 1850, a strong tide of emigration setting toward Iowa, the family came to this State, and after a two years residence in Davis County, permanently settled in Appanoose County. In the latter locality out subject grew to manhood, receiving the benefits of the educational facilities of that county, and made his home with his parents until attaining his twenty-first year. Starting out in life himself, he essayed farming in the same county, where he remained until the spring of 1874, at which date he sold out and came to Monona County.
Mr. Loyd was married September 28, 1861, to Miss Elizabeth Stapleton, and by this union there has been a family of thirteen children born: Lucretia, deceased, William A., Elizabeth, Dellead, Clara, Martha A., Thomas, Lemuel, Zadie, Eliza, Bessie, Grace and Jessie.