Oxenreider, Samuel (1844-1929)

OXENREIDER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 17:10:30

SAMUEL OXENREIDER
(March 31, 1844 - March 12, 1929)

History of Warren County, Iowa; Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns & Etc., by Union Historical Company, 1879, p.631
OXENRIDER, SAM., farmer, White Breast Township, Sec. 28, P. O. Lacona; born March 31, 1844, in Morril county, Ohio; his parents came to this county in 1854, and settled in this township; he has lived here ever since; he enlisted in the army January 16, 1865, in Co. G, 10th Iowa Infantry, and served to the close of the war; was honorably discharged Sept. 2, 1865; was in the battle of Saltcatcher River, S. C., and several other skirmishes; he was educated in common schools and Howe's Academy, in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; he is a teacher by profession, as he is so afflicted with asthma that he can do but little manual labor; although but a boy when he came here, and being thrown upon his own resources, he has made for himself and family a farm of 160 acres, which he superintends, with the assistance of his excellent wife; he has traveled through more than half the States and Territories in the Union; has seen the ups and downs of pioneer life; has chased the deer where Lacona now stands, and listened to the yelp of the wolf and the hooting owls; he was married March 4, 1869, to Elizabeth E., daughter of J. M. Cochran, of this county; they have four children: Leona M., Myrtle L., Cecil H. and Lora E.; Leona and Cecil died in infancy.

Samuel Oxenreider, well known to pioneers of Warren county, has indeed taken an active part in the growth of his county, and especially is this true of White Breast township, he spent his boyhood and grew to man’s estate. He has witnessed grand transformations since his good Christian parents came to Warren county, having seen a comparatively desolate region develop to fine cities; while the place where the wolf made the midnight and early hours of the log-cabin settlers, now beautiful farms have found lodgment. There have come the benefits of good teachers and a society of culture. The city of Lacona was not laid out when Samuel arrived in this section of Warren county, and today fine business blocks adorn this section, good schools having replaced these rude houses of learning, while the sacred edifices of numerous religious denominations rear their domes skyward. In this development and growth the Oxenreiders have been no unimportant factors. When good teachers of our early schools were not numerous, Samuel Oxenreider, ever studious, gave his services for thirty-eight terms to his section, and many of the young business men of Lacona and neighboring cities point to him as their teacher. Not a teacher of the classics, indeed, but of the common branches and at the common-sense seat of learning. He responded when our flag seemed endangered in our recent rebellion's strife, joined Company G, Tenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, January 19, 1865, at Indianola, under Colonel Henderson. Mr. Oxenreider was immediately sent to South Carolina, and it was not long before he had a taste of “ bushwhacking” warfare. He was at Fort Salkehatchie, South Carolina, and at Waterbury, and was honorably discharged at Little Rock, Arkansas, August 18, 1865. He now enjoys the honor of being Adjutant of Post No. 309 , G. A. R., and the Veterans Association at Lacona.
Samuel Oxenreider was born in Morrow county, Ohio, March 31, 1844. His father, whom so many of the old pioneers of Warren county will recall as Henry Oxenreider, was a native of Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, reared and educated there, and was early in life inured to farm labor. Leaving the old home, he found employment with a Mr. Gelwix, of Berkeley county, Virginia. Unfortunately, at the expiration of several years’ service, his employer's farm was put under the auctioneer's block. A cash compensation was quite out of the question, and he was offered a fine black slave as part payment, and he indignantly resented this proposition from purely Christian motives. After some parley, and after he had given up hope of compensation, he received a note that was never paid. Subsequently Mr. Oxenreider sought matrimony, and chose as his wife Miss Margaret Everhart, born near Martinsburg, Virginia, now West Virginia, the daughter of honest farmers who were devout followers of Martin Luther. In 1828 Mr. and Mrs. Oxenreider crossed the mountains with a one horse wagon into Ohio, pitching their tent in Wayne county, afterward going to Morrow county, where he erected a gristmill on Owl creek. He subsequently traded this mill for 200 acres of wild land and then put up a sawmill on the south branch of Owl creek. In the spring of 1854 he purchased the home farm of Henry Fogle, in Warren county, Iowa. Mr. Oxenreider then returned home for his family, and, having disposed of his milling and farming interests, removed to his log cabin in White Breast township. A frame addition was soon built to the log cabin, and, with the assistance of Mrs. Oxenreider, the home was rendered quite comfortable. Ever a zealous worker for home and family, during the years which followed he earned a competence. A warm friend of all enterprises for public good, the winter of 1855 witnessed a gathering of a few settlers on the ice near Stewart's mill, for the purpose of erecting a house of education. The contract was awarded to E. G. Bartlett. Soon the few children of the neighborhood met in this structure, which was erected on the southeast corner of section 28, and listened to words of wisdom from their teacher, a son of Mr. Oxenreider. Many of the old pioneer neighbors know the sterling worth of this honest pioneer, and learned with great sadness of his demise, August 22, 1871. He now reposes peacefully in the Cochran cemetery. The good, noble lady who shared so many of the vicissitudes of life by his side survived him only a few years. She was called to her last resting November 4, 1883, at the age of seventy-years and was laid beside her husband. Mrs. Oxenreider was much esteemed where known. They were the parents of fifteen children, namely: John W., a farmer of Lucas county, served his country in Company D, Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry; Asenath, widow of Mr. Clark, and a resident of California; Julia Ann, wife of James Hodge of Humboldt county, California; Elias, who died from wounds received at Vicksburg during the late Rebellion, having been a member of the Third Iowa Regiment, Company G; Leander, a farmer of White Breast township; Elizabeth Warnick, deceased; David, residing north of Lacona; Henry, of Colorado, enlisted in Company G, Tenth Iowa Infantry, Colonel Henderson, and received several wounds at the battle of Mission Ridge; Samuel, the subject of this sketch; A. J., a farmer of White Breast township; Sarah Cook, of Lucas county; Eliza J. Thompson; Mary A.; and George, deceased in infancy. Samuel Oxenreider, the subject, was but ten years of age when he came with his parents to Warren county. Early in life he learned the use of the plow, and his education was received partly in his Ohio home and in the school in which his brother taught, and was finished at Howe's Academy at Mt Pleasant, Iowa. During recent years Mr. Oxenreider has given his entire attention to farming. In 1865 he purchased eighty acres of land, to which he has since added until he now owns 380 acres. Politically this worthy son is a staunch Republican, and cast his first presidential vote for U. S. Grant. Officially he has sought no preference at the hands of his party and although several times elected to positions of trust in the town, he did not qualify. He served as Town Clerk, however, and always took an important part in the work of his school district. Mr. Oxenreider was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Cochran, a native of Benton county, Indiana, and a daughter of Captain J. W. Cochran. She accompanied her parents to Iowa in 1855. Mr. and Mrs. Oxenreider have had ten children as follows: Leona (deceased at the age of three years); Myrtle (died at the age of three months); C. H., Lora E., Mary M., Sarah E., Belva L., Blanche, Daisy, and Bessie. Source: A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1896, vol.1, p.491

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.548
SAMUEL OXENREIDER
Samuel Oxenreider, a stockholder and one of the directors of the Bank of Lacona, was for many years identified with the agricultural interests of Warren County but is now living retired in Lacona, although he still retains possession of his valuable landed interests, comprising four hundred and eighty acres, from which he derives a good annual income. Mr. Oxenreider is a native of Morrow County, Ohio, born March 31, 1844, a son of Henry and Margaret (Everhart) Oxenreider, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the latter claimed Virginia as the place of her birth. The father removed from his native state to Ohio, where he was engaged in the conduct of a flour and saw mill, continuing his residence in Morrow County for some years. In 1854, however, he removed to Warren County and entered about three hun­dred and twenty acres of land and also purchased one hundred and twenty acres. There he continued to engage in farming throughout his remaining days, owning at the time of his death in 1871, about four hundred and forty acres of valuable and well improved land. His wife survived him for several years, passing away in 1884.
Samuel Oxenreider, whose name introduces this review, was a little lad of ten years at the time of the removal of the family from the Buckeye state to Warren County. Here he was reared to farm life, assisting his father in the fields from the time of early spring planting until the crops were har­vested in the late autumn. He acquired his education in the common schools and in Howe Academy and after completing his course in the latter institu­tion he engaged in teaching, being thus employed through thirty-eight terms. He had, however, in the meantime enlisted as a soldier of the Civil War, being enrolled January 15, 1865, as a member of Company G, Tenth Iowa Vol­unteer Infantry. He participated in many of the important engagements and was with Sherman on his march to Savannah, and finally took part in the grand review at Washington, D. C., at the close of the war. He was later sent to Little Rock, Arkansas, and was mustered out in September 1865, being discharged at Davenport. He had four brothers in the service : Elias, who was a member of the Third Iowa Infantry and died at Vicksburg; John, a member of the Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry; Milton, a member of the Second Iowa Infantry, and Henry, who was with our subject in Company G, Tenth Iowa Regiment.
After the close of hostilities between the north and south, Mr. Oxenreider returned to his home in Warren County and engaged in teaching, following that pursuit for several years. During this time he managed to save from his earnings a sum sufficient to enable him to purchase one hundred and twenty acres of land south of Lacona and on this he located. He at once began the further development and improvement of the place, built a good house and barn, and in due course of time placed the land under a high state of cultivation. As the years passed he prospered in his undertakings and as his financial resources increased he added to his acreage from time to time until he became the owner of four hundred and eighty acres, all im­proved and valuable land. He was for many years identified with agricul­tural interests and still owns this land, which he rents. He is now living retired in Lacona, where he owns and occupies a fine modern residence, which was erected by himself. He is a stockholder and one of the directors of the Bank of Lacona and in this connection is well known throughout the community in which he makes his home.
Mr. Oxenreider was married March 4, 1869, to Miss Elizabeth E. Cochran, a daughter of Captain John M. Cochran, who filled that office in the Tenth Iowa Infantry, serving throughout the war. They have become the parents of the following children : Cecil H., who is married and has one son, and is now operating his father's farm; Lora E., the wife of Claude Funk, a farmer of Liberty township; Mary, who was educated in Cedar Falls Normal and is now engaged in teaching, Sadie E., the wife of Alonzo Goode, a resi­dent of Lacona; Belva L., assistant cashier and bookkeeper in the Bank of Lacona; Blanche; Daisy, who was educated in the Lacona schools and is also engaged in teaching; Bessie, who was graduated from the Lacona high school with the class of 1908; Leona M., who died at the age of three years, and Myrtle, who died in infancy.
Mr. Oxenreider is a republican and cast his first presidential ballot for General U. S. Grant and has voted for every Republican nominee since that time. He has served as a delegate to county conventions and was elected and served as clerk of the township but has never been active as an office seeker. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Mr. Oxenreider is serving as trustee. He is also identified with the Grand Army of the Republic at Lacona, of which he is past commander. For many years he was actively associated with agricultural interests in Warren County and through his labor and economy he and his estimable wife are now enjoying in retirement the accumulations of profitable, success­ful and honorable careers. To those whose good fortune and pleasure it is to know him intimately, his companionship, friendship and counsel are appre­ciated and helpful. With him there is no turning aside from right and duty but his everyday life reflects the true Christian character. In his relations with his fellowmen and in his treatment of his neighbor he never loses sight of the principles of the Golden Rule.