Long, Henry

LONG

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:26:18

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.814

HENRY LONG
Henry Long, who operates his farm of two hundred acres on section 27, Otter Township, has resided in Warren County for over half a century and in his present home for over thirty-five years. He was born in Peoria County, Illinois, in 1844, the son of John and Jane(McNamer) Long. His father was born in Tennessee in 1816. He removed to Kentucky, and from there to Ham­ilton County, Illinois, where he was married. Later, in 1843, he went to Peoria County, Illinois where he owned and operated a one hundred acre farm, residing there some ten or eleven years. In 1854 he removed to Warren County, Iowa, where he entered eighty acres of land on what was at that time section 36, Otter Township. He also entered one hundred and sixty acres in Belmont Township, one hundred and sixty acres in Liberty Township, one hundred and sixty acres in White Breast Township, and elsewhere. He sold those farms to various parties and dealt in real estate, and also engaged in stock trading, and taken altogether was a very successful man. He served several terms as township clerk, as well as in other local offices. During the last fourteen years of his life he suffered from paralysis and was consequent­ly incapacitated for any active career. He died on a farm north of Milo in 1881. Both himself and wife were members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Long was born and reared in North Carolina, her birth occurring in the year 1818. She removed with her parents to Kentucky and later to Hamilton County, Illinois, where she met and married Mr. Long. Her aged mother made her home with her in Peoria County, Illinois, until the time of her death. Mrs. Long passed away in 1880.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. John Long were born ten children, of whom three: Jeannette, James and an infant, are deceased. Those living are: Alexander, a farmer of Peoria County, Illinois; Lydia, the wife of William Michaels, a farm­er residing in Clarke County, near Ashland; Henry, of this review; Jeremiah, who resides in Dakota and has been engaged in various pursuits; Manece Ellen, the wife of Lewis Schee, of Indianola; John, residing in Belmont Township, north of Milo; and Theodore, engaged in farming at Sheridan, Wyoming.
Henry Long spent the days of his boyhood and youth under the parental roof and early received the training in agricultural pursuits which has en­abled him to succeed so admirably in his work in later years. He has made most of the improvements on his present home place and his success in life has been largely due to his own efforts and the sound judgment he has shown in matters pertaining to his business.
In his success he has been ably assisted and seconded by his wife, who was Miss Celia Benge, to whom he was married in 1865. Mrs. Long is the daughter of Thomas and Dorcas (Bales) Benge. Her father was born in Clay County, Kentucky, in 1801 and died in 1879, aged seventy-eight years. He was a soldier of the Black Hawk war and with the land warrant he received for his services he entered forty acres of land. When a youth of eighteen or nineteen years of age Mr. Benge went to Warren County, Indiana, where he engaged in farming. He was married in Putnam County, Indiana, to Miss Bales. They came to Warren County, Iowa, in 1849, locating on the farm now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Long. Mr. Benge entered and owned over one thousand acres of land, mainly in Otter Township, although he had some land in White Breast Township. He improved a small tract, but his health failing he retired and removed to Hammondsburg, where he died. His wife, Dorcas Bales, was born in Kentucky in 1799 and died at the home of a daughter in Squaw Township in October, 1886. She and her husband are buried at Hammondsburg. She embraced the faith of the Baptist church and was immersed in Otter Creek, after she was eighty years of age. Her parents removed from Kentucky to Putnam County, Indiana, when she was but a child and it was there that she met and married Mr. Benge.
Mrs. Long was but eight years of age when the family came to Warren County, Iowa. At that time game of all kinds was plentiful, deer being seen in droves of sometimes fifty, besides an abundance of feathered game. Wolves and other wild animals roamed the prairies. Mrs. Long pursued her educa­tion in a little log schoolhouse, attending later Mrs. Nutting's school.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Long have been born four sons. namely: John J., a farm­er residing northeast of Indianola was born in 1866. He married Flora Derrough and unto this union have been born four children, Albert, Grace, Don and Frank. Thomas L., a farmer of Otter Township, was born in 1867 and married Miss Carrie Reed. James, residing on a farm in White Oak Township, was born in 1869. He married Miss Nannie Howe, by whom he has one daughter, Leila. Henry, Jr., born in 1883, conducts farming operations in Otter Township. He married Miss Ida Friedley, and they have one son, Verle. Politically, Mr. Long is a Democrat, but he has never sought nor desired office. He and his wife are members of the Church of Christ in Christian Union, of Hammondsburg.