Armstrong, Harry G. 1848-1930

ARMSTRONG, HART, DAWLEY, LAROS, WALKER, CHILD, HASTINGS, ROBISON, WILLIAMS, BURD, BARNES

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 7/4/2011 at 11:52:53

The Grinnell Herald (Grinnell, Iowa) April 1, 1930

WORTHY LIFE REACHES CLOSE
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Harry G. Armstrong, One Of The Early Settlers Of Poweshiek County Passes.
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CAME TO DEEP RIVER TOWNSHIP, MARCH 11, 1868.
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Private Funeral Services From Smith Funeral Parlors Wednesday Morning.
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Harry G. Armstrong, who passed away Monday at nine o'clock after an illness of several months duration, was one of the very earliest settlers in Poweshiek county. His father A.C. Armstrong came west in the spring of 1855 and a few months afterwards located in Deep River township. He was one of the founders of the town of Dresden and assisted in platting the town.

Harry G. was born in Rutland county, Vermont, May 4, 1848, and so was a very small boy when his father moved to Deep River township. March 11, 1868, he was united in marriage with Fidesta Hart, a resident of Deep River township. To them three children were born, two of whom are still living. Mrs. Armstrong died in 1875 and two years later he married Hattie Dawley of Rutland County, Vermont. To this marriage were born one son, Herbert H. Armstrong, and three daughters, May now Mrs. Fred Laros, and Ruth, now Mrs. George Walker of Iowa City, and one daughter Dawley who married Wallace Child and died a few years ago.

The Armstrongs were a vigorous and rugged family and honest. Harry was postmaster of Dresden in the early days and moved to Grinnell in the spring of 1881 and with his father he joined in the coal business of A.C. Armstrong and Co. Later he was a member of the firm of Simmons and Armstrong in the grocery business. During all the forty-eight years that he has lived here he has been recognized as a man of strict integrity.

No man has lived a better life than Harry Armstrong and few have been as useful to the community in which he lived.

Private funeral services will be held from the Smith Funeral Parlors Wednesday morning conducted by Rev. Edmund M. Vittum.

Pallbearers will be: George Walker, Arthur Robison, William McKee, Cedric Barnes, Donald Barnes and Herbert Armstrong.

Relatives surviving Mr. Armstrong are three sisters Mrs. W.C. Hastings and Mrs. J.W. Robison of this city, Mrs. Ida Williams of Claremont, N.H.; four daughters, Mrs. Hattie Hastings of Grinnell, Mrs. Almetta Burd of Cedar Rapids, Mrs. Fred Laros of Hart, Mich., and Mrs. George Walker of Iowa City and one son H.H. Armstrong of Grinnell; two grand-children, Mrs. Cedric Barnes, of Grinnell, and Harry Hastings of Bloomington, Ill.; and three great grand children, Donald and Paul Barnes and Evelyn Louise, daughter of Harry Hastings.