Sylvester, John A. (1829-1905)

SYLVESTER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 22:07:20

John A. Sylvester
Oct 26, 1829 - May 15, 1905

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, P.420)
JOHN A. SYLVESTER, of section 20, Garner Township, has been a resident of this county ever since 1861. He was born in North Carolina, Pitt County, October 26, 1829, a son of John SYLVESTER, Sr., who was born in 1802, in Boston, of Pilgrim stock, and is still living. His ancestors participated both in the Revolutionary war and in that of 1812. Mr. SYLVESTER's mother's name before marriage was Cassandra SLAUGHTER. She too was born in Pitt County, North Carolina. The parents of the subject of this sketch were married in 1828, and then emigrated to Randolph County, Indiana, where the father was a cooper by trade; earlier in life he was a sailor.
Mr. SYLVESTER of this sketch also learned the cooper trade and worked on the farm. Arriving at age he became a teacher, in his home district. In 1853 he came to Dallas County, Iowa; two years afterward he went to Minnesota and two years after that again he went to Missouri and taught school near St. Joseph; finally he came to Council Bluffs in 1861.

February 20, 1863, he married Mrs. Adelphia McDONALD, a lady of high culture, born near Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, a daughter of John and Adelphia (HARPER) WOODS, natives of Kentucky. She was twelve years of age when her mother, in 1838, settled in Des Moines County, Iowa, and she was reared there and in Henry and Mahaska counties, this State. On reaching the age of twenty-one years she married Milton McDONALD, a resident of Mahaska county at that time. In 1850 they moved to Putnam County, Missouri, and in the spring of 1851 they came to Pottawattamie County, settling April 24, on a farm where she now lives, then a Mormon claim, upon which was a small log cabin and a limited portion of the ground broken. Here Mr. McDONALD died, July 8, 1862, at the age of forty-five years, a sincere member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They had four children, three of whom are now living: Amanda Ellen, now the wife of W. H. MULLEN, of Council Bluffs; Marshall F., a prominent attorney of St. Louis, Missouri; and Mary F., now Mrs. M. R. FRANK, also of Council Bluffs. They lost one child by death, William F., at the age of seven years. By the present union Mr. and Mrs. SYLVESTER have three children, namely: John MILTON, a successful teacher; Ada C., and Elmer H., the latter also a teacher. The family occupy a fine brick house, surrounded by evergreen and noble forest trees. Mr. SYLVESTER is a Republican, and has been Justice of the Peace. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.