William Focht

FOCHT

Posted By: James Moon
Date: 12/4/2002 at 02:25:18

FOCHT, William
Was Mexican War Veteran
William Focht, early Montgomery County settler and one of its best citizens, is dead at the age of nearly 83 years.
William Focht, veteran of the Mexican War, Iowa pioneer, and one of the oldest and most respected of Montgomery County's early settlers, died at the home of his son, James M. Focht, 14 miles north of Villisca, Thursday, Dec, 9, 1909, at 4:10 in the afternoon. He was 82 years, 11 months and 8 days of age. His death followed kidney and heart affliction lasting about one year. Mr. Focht, all his life, had enjoyed remarkably good health, and even a few days prior to his demise had not been confined to his bed.
He was active, sturdy, honest, square dealing farmer, and his entire life, practically, was spent tilling the soil. Although not attaining a degree of wealth to distinguish him from other members of the community in which he lived, yet he enjoyed success and acquired considerable property.
Coming to Montgomery Co., with his wife and two little sons, in the year 1857, he brought about $1,000, and after a years residence on the McCracken farm, then belonging to his younger brother, Jacob, in Pilot Grove twp., bought a farm of 160 acres north of Villiaca which he owned, and on which he lived the rest of his life. At the time of death he owned 520 acres and with money and notes leaves an estate valued at about $60,000. The site of the home of which he died is the same one on which he settled, when land was cheap and neighbors were few. Today the land is worth probably $100 an acre and the neighborhood is settled up by a most progressive and congenial class of farmers. The house in which Mr. Focht died is the second that has been built on the place, but Mr. Focht made his home within its walls for a period of about 38 years.
William Focht was born in Schuylkill Co., PA., Jan. 1st, 1827. In 1839 he moved with his parents to Lima, OH., Allen, now known as Auglaize Co. There on the 26th day of June 1853, he was married to Miss Rebeca Williams, and two sons, Persifer anf John, were born to this union. Four years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Focht came to Iowa and cast their lot among early pioneers of Montgomery Co. They were the parents of a family of thirteen children, but six of them, three boys and three girls, died in infancy. The wife and mother passed to the better home on Aug. 6, 1897.
The surviving children are all boys, and are as follows, P.S., John, Melvin, who lives at Lincoln, NE., James M., Samuel of Ole Elm, Washington, and Oscar. One son, Homer, lived to maturity but was accidentally killed in an initiation ceremony of the M. A. lodge at Hepburn, May 27, 1899.
With the exception of Melvin, who visited his father a short time ago, and Samuel, the children and a great many friends and other relatives attended the funeral, which was held Sunday afternoon at one o'clock at the memorial Chapel, north of Villisca, conducted by the Rev. R. E. Snodgrass of Des Moines, the pastor. The obsequies were in charge of the Masonic lodge of Grant, of which Mr. Focht was a charter member. The pall beares were Fred Bourck, B.F. Mercer, Porter Osborn, W. A. Becker, C.E. Leonard, and R.T. Bacon. S. E. Smith read part of the ritual, and interment was made in the Memorial Cem., by the side of the deceased wife and other members of the family. William Focht served in the Mexican War as a Captain under Stonewall Jackson, enlisting in 1847, and serving his country well and faithfully for twenty months. He received an Honorable Discharge on Governor's Island, New York, and walked from New York City to his home in Ohio.
Toward the close of the Civil War he headed a company of HomeRecruits who went down from Arlington into northern Missouri to do guard duty.
Mr. Focht was a member of the A. F. & A. M. before coming west, and after his removal to the county, helped to organize a Masonic lodge at Red Oak, being one of the charter members of that organization, as well as the one in Grant, to which he afterward took his membership.
All through his life Mr. Focht was an earnest and staunch Democrat and was a subscriber to the first issue of the Red Oak Sun.
Submitted by:
James Moon
2529 Downing Dr.
Plano, Texas 75023