McIntosh, Absalom B.

MCINTOSH

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 13:46:59

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.410

ABSALOM B. McINTOSH
Specific recognition should surely be given to A. B. McIntosh in the history of Warren County, for since pioneer days he has resided within its borders and in an active business career has won success. He has been identified with both merchandising and farming although his real life work has been in agricultural lines. As the years have passed the capable direction of his business affairs and his indefatigable energy have won him gratifying pros­perity. It is not alone his success, however, that entitles him to the respect and admiration of his fellowmen, for in other lines his activities have benefited the community. He has been especially generous in his support of the Metho­dist denomination in building churches in this part of the state and at all times gives his endorsement to measures and movements which are calculated to pro­mote the material, intellectual, social and moral advancement of the com­munity.
Mr. McIntosh is now living retired at New Virginia. His birth occurred in Taylor County, West Virginia, October 31, 1839. His father, Elijah B. McIntosh, probably a native of the Old Dominion, was of Irish descent and de­voted his entire life to farming, and was for many years a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and died in that faith in West Virginia at the age of fifty years. The mother, Rebecca (Sayres) McIntosh, was born in Vir­ginia and died in West Virginia at the very advanced age of eighty-six years. Their family numbered twelve children, nine of whom reached adult age, while five are still living, as follows: A. B., of this review; Hannah, the wife of E. Freeman, a resident of New Virginia; Benjamin S., who makes his home in West Virginia; W. F., a resident of Oregon; and A. D., who resides in Wyoming.
A. B. McIntosh spent his boyhood in the state of his nativity and attended the common schools. He remained at home until twenty-two years of age and started out in life on his own account by renting and cultivating a part of his father's farm. Attracted, however, by the opportunities of the west, he made a trip to Warren County in 1857, having relatives living here at the time. He returned, however, to West Virginia but in the spring of 1864 came again to Warren County and began farming upon rented land. He has witnessed the growth of the county from pioneer times and in the work of improvement has borne a most helpful part. There was but one schoolhouse in the township when he visited here in 1857 and only two at the time he took tip his permanent abode in the county in 1864. There was not a, railroad nearer than seventy-five miles and he felt that he was living in town when the first railroad went into Des Moines. Years later he aided in building the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad through New Virginia. In the spring of 1865 Mr. McIntosh purchased forty acres of land and five acres of woodland in Virginia Township and received the first deed to real estate which he ever pos­sessed.
In those days he was in very limited financial circumstances. He owned a team and had one hundred and eighty dollars in money which he gave for his property and also arranged to give half of the crop for his forty acres for the succeeding five years to complete the payment. The first year, how­ever, he raised for the man from whom he had purchased his land seventy-five bushels of corn per acre on twenty acres and the crop sold for seventy-five cents per bushel. Mr. McIntosh then realized that he could do better to pay cash than to give half the crop and agreed to make payments in four installments of four hundred dollars with interest at ten per cent, which was then the lawful rate. Thus it was that he made his start in Warren County. His first house, a little box house, fourteen by sixteen feet, was moved on to the farm with oxen and he made that farm his home for eight years, after which he traded the property for land in Squaw Township, whereon he resided con­tinuously until 1893, when he took up his abode in New Virginia. Here he established a furniture store which he conducted with success until 1901, when he retired. He was also owner of a general store at Medora in Squaw Township for several years but has regarded agricultural pursuits as his real life work and through his farming operations has met with creditable and gratifying success. As his financial resources increased he added to his property until at one time he was the owner of four hundred acres of land. He has since given eighty acres to each of his sons but still retains the ownership of one hundred and twenty acres, from which he derives a good annual income. In his business career he places his dependence upon such substantial qualities as energy, unfaltering industry and irreproachable honesty - an example that others might well follow.
Mr. McIntosh was married in West Virginia, in 1860, to Miss Rosie Currie, a native of West Virginia, who died in New Virginia, February 17, 1899. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom three died in infancy. Those who still survive are: John S., a resident farmer of Squaw Township; Mollie, the wife of W. A. Brought, of New Virginia; Emily, the wife of E. S. Carson, also of New Virginia; Prudence, the wife of N. E. Judkins, a resident of North Dakota; Savanah, the wife of Rev. C. W. Procter, located at Pleasant­ville, Iowa; George, who follows farming in Squaw Township; Ella, the wife of Earl Felton, a farmer of Virginia Township, Warren County; and Warren F., who is still under the parental roof. On the 31st of October, 1900, Mr. McIn­tosh was again married, his second union being with Mrs. R. A. Sherman, formerly of Jasper County, Iowa.
In politics Mr. McIntosh is a progressive Republican. He has never aspired to office, yet his fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability have called him to several local positions, including that of township trustee, school director and alderman. In the discharge of his duties he has even been prompt and faithful, bringing to bear the same qualities which have characterized his successful business career. Since 1854 he has been a faithful and loyal mem­ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church and from the age of twenty years has served as an officer in the church, while since twenty-one years of age he has been class leader off and on. He is most generous in his support of the church, has served on various building committees and assisted in the erection of many houses of worship, including two in New Virginia and the Liberty, Washington and Jamison churches in Clarke County, Iowa, the Mount Tabor and the Medford churches and the Medora Methodist Episcopal Church in Squaw township. He has also made liberal donations to other denominations and to Simpson College and has thus given most freely of his means in support of church work. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has done in this line and it is indicative of his deep interest in Christianity and the pur­poses of the church. In other ways, too, he has become recognized as a most useful citizen and in all his life he has enjoyed and deserved the respect and confidence of his fellowmen.