Hemsted, J. W.

HEMSTED

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/11/2006 at 00:56:35

J. W. Hemsted

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.257, Waveland Twp.)
Dr. J. W. Hemsted, physician, Griswold, Cass County, was born in Johnson Co.,, Iowa in May, 1849; his father, F. W. Hemsted, was born in York Co., Penn., in 1818, emigrated to Ohio in 1840, stopped at Columbus till 1846, when he came to Iowa, landing at Iowa City, where he worked at his trade; has retired to private life. Subject's mother, Elizabeth (Akers) Hemstead, was born in Wayne County, Penn., in 1816; she is the mother of seven children. Dr. Hemsted first attended the district schools of Iowa; then he spent three years in the State University of Iowa, after which he took courses in medicine in the same institution, graduating in 1873; he first practiced one year at Tiffin, Johnson Co., Iowa, then moved to Pottawattamie County and located where he now lives, on a farm of 320 acres, situated thirty-eight miles east of Council Bluffs, in the Walnut Creek Valley. After Dr. Hemsted came to Pottawattamie County, he engaged in practice for several years, during which time he established a wide reputation by the many skillful operations he performed in this section; he is doubtless well equipped for surgical operations as any physician in the West. Dr. Hemsted married Miss Eva L. Thorn, of Johnson County, Iowa, in 1876, who was born November 24, 1854; her father, Graham Thorn, born in New York in 1824, emigrated to Illinois in 1853, settling in Du Page County; in 1864, he came to Johnson County, Iowa, where he still lives. Mrs. Hemsted's mother, Laura (Bailey) Thorn, was born in New York in November 1831, and died in 1878. Dr. Hemsted and wife have three children - Ellen M., Bessie May and Samuel B. The Doctor is a Democrat, and was a candidate, in the fall of 1881, for Representative on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated.

(Note: The spelling of his mother's name Elizabeth (Akers) Hemstead (instead of Hemsted) is what's in the book.)