Isaac Halstead

HALSTEAD, TIMMONS, MASSEY, PRESTON, YOUNG, FANGBONER, TUFTS, MCMILLEN

Posted By: Fran Hunt, Volunteer
Date: 10/5/2001 at 21:36:24

From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Jefferson and Van Buren Counties – 1890
ISAAC HALSTEAD
Isaac Halstead, one of the prominent farmers and stock-raisers of Jackson Township, came to Van Buren County, in 1862, but since 1847 has made his home in the state, having previously resided in Franklin and Keokuk. He has taken an active part in the growth of the county and to the extent of his ability and resources has assisted in its development and progress.
The Halstead family is of German origin and was founded in America during Colonial days by ancestry who settled in New York, where the father of our subject, Timothy Halstead, was born in 1799. His boyhood days were passed in New York, but before he had arrived at years of maturity he went to Ohio, where he married in 1820, Miss Hester Timmons, a native of Maryland, in which state her parents, Ephraim and Mary Timmons, were also born. They were parents of four children as follows: Mary Ann, deceased wife of Richard Massey; Martha, wife of Isaiah Preston of Davis County Iowa; Isaac of this sketch and Timothy J. who is also living in Davis County.
Our subject was born on March 18, 1826, and his birthplace was in Ross County Ohio where under the parental roof the days of his childhood were spent. He accompanied the family on their immigration to Franklin Iowa and In Keokuk he learned the trade of a brick mason, which he there followed until 1857. Removing in that year to Edina Missouri, he engaged as a contractor and builder, erecting some of the principal business blocks of that city, including the Bryant and Connelly two story brick block, and Col. Pratt’s building which has two stories in height with a basement. He was also the architect of a large number of fine brick dwellings in the city and county, but after successfully carrying on business for five years in Edina, he returned to Iowa and began farming in Van Buren County. He traded for his first eighty acres of land and to that amount has added until he now owns two hundred acres of choice land, forty of which is timber, while the quarter section is divided into rich and fertile fields which yield a golden tribute for the care and cultivation he bestows upon them. The value of the farm has also been greatly increased by the erection of a comfortable residence, a large barn, shed, etc, and the whole is surrounded by beautiful shade trees, of his planting. Mr. Halstead, by fair dealing and just treatment has won a place in the esteem of his fellow townsmen and ranks among the representative citizens of the county. To have won the success, which has crowned his business efforts, he must have applied himself assiduously to his work; yet he has found time to encourage and aid all laudable enterprises. In politics, he is a supporter of Republican principles and has held a number of local offices.
In 1856, Mr. Halstead formed a matrimonial alliance with Caroline Young, then a resident of Bonaparte Township, Van Buren County. Her birth, however, occurred in New Jersey, September 7, 1829, and her parents were Benjamin and Mary Fangboner Young, natives of the same state. Unto them have been born four children but they had the misfortune to lose their eldest son and second child, George W. Amanda is now the wife of Caleb Tufts; Benjamin F. twin brother of George is at home, and Ella is the wife of Theodore McMillen.
I am not related, and am only copying this for the information of those who might find this person in their family.