Jeffers, Isaac

JEFFERS, FULLER, BLANCHARD, RACY

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Plym. CC (email)
Date: 3/19/2005 at 11:46:04

The Jeffers Family

Among the pioneer families of Plymouth county, few have been more active in the work of developing the best interests of the county, and particularly that part of the same comprised in Johnson township, than has the Jeffers family, which has been prominently represented in the western part of the county since the year 1870.

The late Isaac Jeffers, who died at his home in Johnson township in 1898, was for thirteen years the trustee of that township and for many years the director of the school in his district. He was born in the state of New York on January 12, 1835, son of Alba and Phoebe Diana Jeffers, natives of that same state, the former born in 1812 and the latter in 1814, who became early settlers of Plymouth county and here spent their last days. Alba Jeffers was a farmer in his native state and also was a stone mason. He took and active part in the public affairs of his home community in New York and had held county offices. Determined to seek a home for himself and family in the then new West he disposed of his interests in New York state and moved with his family to Wisconsin, where he remained for several years, at the end of which time he moved to eastern Iowa, remaining there until 1870, in which year he came to this county and entered a claim to a homestead tract of eighty acres in section 4 of Johnson township and there established his home remaining there until his retirement from the active labors of the farm in 1884 and removal to Akron, where his last days were spent. After his death his widow returned to the old home place in Johnson township and there her death occurred in 1899. They were the parents of seven children, Isaac, Gusta, Mercy, Mary, Jane, Benjamin and Charles, all of whom are deceased save the last-named, who is now living at Freeport, Illinois.

Isaac Jeffers, first-born of the seven children of the pioneer couple above referred to, accompanied his parents when they came to Plymouth county in 1870 and he homesteaded a tract of eighty acres adjoining his father's homestead, in section 4 of Johnson township, moving the latter's house so that it covered the line dividing the two homesteads and thus served as a place of residence for proving up the two homestead claims. The spring following his arrival here he married and he and his wife continued to live in the homestead house, both families occupying it together, until about 1886, when he bought an additional tract of eighty acres, the north half of the northwest quarter of section 4 in that same township and on that erected a good frame house in which he established his home and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1898. In his youth Isaac Jeffers had learned the trade of plasterer and mason and long after coming the this county followed those trade in addition to his work as a farmer, in this capacity helping to build many of the earlier buildings erected in this county and plastering practically every school house between that point and Sioux City. For many years he was school director in his home district and for thirteen years served as trustee of Johnson township, in that capacity rendering a valuable service in behalf of the growing community, so that at his death in 1898 there was expressed a general feeling of loss in the neighborhood, for he had been a useful citizen.

On April 29, 1872, the year after his arrival in this county, Isaac Jeffers was united in marriage to Mrs. Katherine (Fuller) Blanchard, who was born in Washington county, New York, in 1842, daughter of Daniel and Mary (Racy) Fuller, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of Plattsburg, New York. Daniel Fuller was a carpenter and in 1852 came to Iowa with his family and settled at Dubuque, where he worked at his trade until the fall of 1854, when he moved to Delaware county, this state, and bought a farm, which he began to improve. There he died two years later, in 1856, at the age of fifty-seven years. His widow remained there until 1870, in which year she disposed of her interests there and came to Plymouth county. Here she homesteaded a tract of eighty acres in section 10 of Johnson township, built a frame house and proceeded, with the aid of her sons, to develop the same, and there lived until she moved to Le Mars to make her home with her son, Frank Fuller, who was then sheriff of Plymouth county, and there she died in 1884, at the advanced age of eighty years. Daniel and Mary Fuller were the parents of ten children, John, David, Wallace, Daniel, Orison, Frank, Rachel, Mary, Katherine and Nancy. Both Frank Fuller and Wallace Fuller were veterans of the Civil War and each homesteaded a tract of one hundred and sixty acres upon coming to this county. Three other brothers of this family also served as soldiers of the union army during the Civil War. Frank Fuller was the first justice of peace of Johnson township and served as sheriff of Plymouth county for one term.

Katherine Fuller was a young woman when she came West with her parents and she was married after coming to Iowa to William Blanchard, a bookkeeper, who later enlisted for service as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War and in that service lost an arm. He later served for some time as recorder of Delaware county and in that county died. To him and his wife two children were born, Mattie and Lillian, the later of whom died when eleven years of age. Mattie Blanchard married Marshall Mann and to that union six children were born, Lillian, William, Elmer, Albert, Pearly and Mamie (deceased). When her mother came over to Plymouth county in 1870, Mrs. Blanchard accompanied her and entered a claim to an eighty-acre homestead in Johnson township, which she proved up, and it was while thus engaged that she met and married her neighbor, Isaac Jeffers, in the spring of 1872. To that union five children were born, William, Newton (deceased), Orison, Frank and Anna. William Jeffers, who is now engaged in the work of the Holiness society at Sioux City, a Prominent factor in the mission at that place, married Elvina Peterson and has one child, a son, William I. Orison Jeffers is unmarried and continues to make his home with his widowed mother in the old home in section 4 of Johnson township. In partnership with his brother, Frank, he is engaged in farming two hundred acres in that township, eighty acres of which the brothers rent, and in addition to his general farming is largely engaged in the raising of live stock. Frank Jeffers, who is living on another part of the home farm, to the east of the old family residence occupied by Mrs. Jeffers and her son, Orison, and who is engaged in partnership, with his brother in operating the place, married Margaret Burwell and has four children, Lillian, Pearl, Lambert and Lucile. Anna Jeffers married Ervin Boyer, a farmer, of Meade county, South Dakota and has five children, Leslie, Ethel, Gladys Fay, Vera Fern and Mattie Evelyn.

BOOK SOURCE:
History of Plymouth County, Iowa
Indianapolis, Ind.: B. F. Bowen, 1917