Triplett, Luther

TRIPLETT, WILSON, BALL, LITTLEFIELD

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 5/2/2009 at 08:36:41

History of Poweshiek Co. Iowa (1911)
Page 490

LUTHER TRIPLETT

Well directed effort along agricultural lines was the source of the gratifying competence which now enables Luther Triplett to live retired, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of former years of labor.

He was born in what is now Bureau county, Illinois, on the 16th of December,1834, and the scene of his nativity was one of the picturesque log cabins, with stick and mud chimneys and puncheon floors, so typical of pioneer days. His parents, Aquilla and Elizabeth (Wilson) Triplett, were both born in the year 1811, the father's birth occurring in Virginia and the mother's in Pennsylvania. They were married in Ohio and removed to Illinois shortly before the birth of their son, Luther. The district was at that time sparsely settled and Aquilla Triplett entered land from the government in what later became Bureau county, paying therefore a dollar and a quarter per acre. There he developed a farm, which he continued to cultivate for a number of years. He passed away at the age of seventy-one years while visiting his son, Luther, at Brooklyn. His wife continued to reside on the old home place until her demise, which occurred when she was eight-four years of age. Their family of ten children consisted of seven sons and three daughters, of whom Luther was the second in order of birth and the eldest son. A brother, Levi, served for three years as a soldier in the Civil war. Four brothers and one sister of our subject still survive.

The little cabin in Illinois, sixteen by sixteen feet, remained the home of Luther Triplett throughout the period of his boyhood and he continued a resident of that state until 1868, when he followed the advice of Horace Greeley--"Go west, young man"--and sought a home and fortune on the broad prairies west of the Mississippi river. He located first in Brooklyn, Poweshiek county, Iowa, and then in the spring of 1869 he purchased a farm five miles northwest of this city, on section 4, Bear Creek township. For thirty-nine years he labored unceasingly in its development and improvement, his efforts being characterized by an energy, perseverance and diligence that presaged the most successful outcome. At the expiration of that period results were so substantial that he was able to withdraw from active labor and with a most satisfactory competence removed to Brookyn, where he is now enjoying a well merited rest. Upon his retirement from agricultural pursuits he was the owner of a valuable property of two hundred and forty acres, all well improved and highly cultivated, eight acres of which he has since sold to his son.

While yet a resident of Illinois, Mr. Triplett was united in marriage, in 1854, to Miss Celia Ann Ball, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, January 20, 1835, and when eighteen years of age went to Illinois with her parents. She is a daughter of Vachel and Fannie Ball, natives of Maryland, who also came to Iowa in 1868, locating in Brooklyn at the same time that Mr. Triplett became a resident here. In their family were four daughters and seven sons. As the years passed the home of Mr. and Mrs. Triplett was blessed with six children, namely: Frank, a resident of Gowrie, Webster county, Iowa; H.L., of Grinnell; Fannie, the wife of F.O. Littlefield, of Humboldt, Kansas; Monsieur D., a farmer residing five miles northwest of Brooklyn; Aquilla, making his home in Stratford, Texas; and Dr. Louis B., practicing medicine in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Although Mr. Triplett gives stanch support to the candidates of the democratic party, he has never sought nor desired office for himself. He is a Master Mason, belonging to the lodge at Brooklyn, and has won for himself a large circle of friends during his long residence in Brooklyn and vicinity. He has never regretted his determination to come to Iowa, for in the cultivation of her rich soil he found most substantial success.