Samuel Boon

BOON, DUNLAP, HUTCHINSON, CRAWFORD, HARLAN, GOULD, CUNNINGHAM

Posted By: Fran Hunt, Volunteer
Date: 10/6/2001 at 09:50:07

From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties – 1890
SAMUEL BOON
Samuel Boon, a farmer and plasterer, has long been numbered among the leading citizens of Van Buren County. A friend to her best interests he has done not a little for her advancement and progress and his many friends will be glad to see his sketch in the county’s history.
His grandfather, Thomas Boon, at the age of seventeen years, left the Emerald Isle, his native land, and sailed for America. On reaching this country he was sold to a man in Philadelphia to pay his passage. He became a mechanic and engaged also in farming, following the dual occupation in the Keystone State, where he married Margaret Dunlap, a lady of Scotch descent. Their son, George W. Boon, was born in 1777, grew to manhood in Pennsylvania and learned the cooper’s trade. On account of his father marrying again he was thrown upon his own resources at the tender age of twelve years and from that time fought life’s battle unaided. About 1800 in Westmoreland County Pennsylvania, he wedded Nancy Hutchinson and eleven years later they emigrated to Ohio, locating in the wilderness. They had to live in blockhouses to protect them from the Indians who were fare more numerous at the time than the white settlers. No roads had been made through the forests and the work of civilization had just begun. Amid such surroundings our subject was reared to manhood. In the family were fifteen children; seven sons and eight daughters, but only three sons and on daughter are now living. The father died in December of 1857, and the mother passed away ten years previously. The lived consistent Christian lives and were members of what is now the United Presbyterian Church.
Reared amid the wild scenes of pioneer life in Ohio, the educational advantages, which Samuel Boon received in his youth, were necessarily limited, but possessing an observing eye and retentive memory he has by subsequent reading and observation made himself a well informed man. He was born in Wayne County Ohio, October 19, 1820, and after he had reached his twenty-first year he learned the blacksmith’s trade, which continued to be his occupation for a quarter of a century. In March of 1845, he led to the marriage altar Miss Sarah Crawford and then brought his bride to Iowa, where in Birmingham in company with his brother he followed blacksmithing with good success for sixteen years. Accumulating capital through his industry and good management he made an investment in one hundred and fifty acres of land, which has been his home for twenty years and in connection with the cultivation of that farm he has devoted his energies to the plasterer’s trade. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Boon were born three children—Rebecca, now living in Ashland County; Edith L., wife of Francis Harlan, a merchant of Stockport; and Robert l., now a practicing physician of Bentonsport. When only fifteen years of age he entered the army as a member of the Third Iowa Regiment. He graduated from the Rush Medical College of Chicago and has won for himself an honored place in the ranks of the medical fraternity.
Mrs. Boon died in 1856 and in May of 1858 Mr. Boon wedded Hepsibel Gould, by whom he had one son and three daughters—Anna M., at home; Margaret H., wife of Warren Cunningham;’ a resident farmer of Union Township, Van Buren County; Ada B. at home; and William Ross who married Irena Cunningham and is farming hear his old home. The children have been liberally educated and have all followed teaching. The parents are members of the United Presbyterian Church, which he serves as Deacon. In political sentiment he was first a Democrat but later became a Freesoiler and voted for John P. Hale. He was a delegate to the convention of Abolitionists in Keosauqua in 1848, which was twice mobbed but which nevertheless performed its work successfully. He then became a Republican and voted with that party until the campaign of 1880, when he supported the Prohibitionists, with which he has since been connected. He carried the Prohibition standard as candidate for the Legislature in 1887 and made a strong canvas of the county, during which he challenged the opposing candidates to a discussion but both refused. Mr. Boon served acceptably in the office of Justice of the Peace for eight years. He has been a citizen of the county for forty-five years and a supporter of all its best interests.
I am not related, and am only copying this for the information of those who might find this person in their family.