Proctor, Augustus L. 1816-1899

PROCTOR, LAMBERT, HOWARD, MACK

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 8/14/2012 at 11:06:44

The Grinnell (IA) Herald; March 1899

A.L. PROCTOR

Died, at Iowa Falls, of pneumonia, March 23, 1899, Augustus L. Proctor, aged 83 years.

Augustus L. Proctor was born April 30, 1816, at Boscawen, N.H., the son of Dr. John Proctor and Mehitable Lambert, of Rowley, Mass. His father lived and practiced his profession in Boscawen, Salisbury and Epsom. N.H., where he died in 1837.

The subject of this sketch passed his youth in Salisbury in the employ of a merchant named Greenough. He afterwards spent some time in Georgetown, Mass. He removed to Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, N.Y., in 1847 and about Jan. 1, 1850, he was marrid to Annette Lois Howard of Depuyster in the same county. His first wife died March 16, 1862. He afterwards was married to Mrs. Eliza Mack Howard, who was the widow of his first wife's brother. In the autumn of 1864, he brought his family to Iowa and located upon a farm seven miles northwest of Grinnell, where he remained until some time in 1870, when he moved to Grinnell, which place he ever afterwards called his home, although the last ten years of his life were passed at Iowa Falls.

Mr. Proctor was a man of strong convictions and in many respects his character partook of the ruggedness of his native state. During the civil war his home was upon the Canadian border, where intense partisan feelings were prevalent and more than once his life was threatened by those who were opposed to his strong and openly expressed Union sentiments and it became necessary for him to go about armed as a measure of self defense.

His sense of duty was as strong as his convictions and to know his duty was to do it at whatever cost to his feelings or his pride. The disappointments of his life were many and some of them were hard to bear but so quietly and patiently were they borne that it was only during the last years of his life that he referred to them and then only in a confidential way to his oldest son. He disliked publicity or notoriety and shrank from them. About the year 1850 he determined to lead the life of a Christian and from that time until his death he followed undeviatingly the guidance and direction of the Master as they revealed themselves to him.

When during the last hours of life he was asked if his faith was steadfast, he said: "I know that the Holy Spirit is with me, sustaining and comforting me." With his death a strong, sweet character passed away, and it is a rich legacy his children possess to know that his influence for righteousness still lives.

The funeral was from the residence of his son H.P. Proctor at Grinnell, Iowa, upon March 24, 1899, conducted by Rev. E.M. Vittum. He leaves five sons, two daughters and nineteen grandchildren to mourn his death.