Park, John

PARK

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 23:20:31

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.925

JOHN PARK
Among the pioneer settlers of Warren county is numbered John Park, who now lives on section 28, Lincoln township. He has for more than a half century lived in this locality and in fact took up his abode here in 1852. Many changes have occurred since that time, until the county today bears little resemblance to the great stretches of wild, uncultivated prairie which was its chief feature at the time of Mr. Park's arrival. Considerable wild game was yet to be had and the homes of the settlers were very primitive as compared to the attractive and commodious farm and town residences of the present day.
Mr. Park was born in Ireland in 1835 and was there reared to the age of thirteen years, when he came with his parents to America , locating in Jackson county, Ohio , in 1848. There he resided for a number of years, during which time his father died. He afterward came with his mother to Iowa , arriving in Warren county when a young man of seventeen. He is largely a self-educated as well as self-made man. On reaching years of maturity he purchased land in Polk county, Iowa , where he improved a farm, which he cultivated for several years. He then sold out and came to Warren county, settling in Richland township, where he again purchased land. Going to Illinois , he married, in that state in 1857, Miss Margaret Greeg, a native of Ireland and of Scotch-Irish parentage. Mr. and Mrs. Park began their domestic life on a farm near Hartford and in the years which have since elapsed he has purchased and improved four different farms in Warren county, thus aiding materially in its development and progress. In 1889 he bought two hundred and thirty acres where he now resides and has transformed it into a valuable property, equipped with many modern conveniences and accessories. He has erected here a good residence, also barns and outbuildings, has planted an orchard and fenced the fields with woven wire and barbed wire fencing. In fact, his labors have been along lines of progressive agriculture and as the years have passed he gained a goodly measure of success.
In 1901 Mr. Park was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who was laid to rest in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Indianola. He has nine living children, while Maggie is deceased. The surviving members of the family are as follows: Jane, the wife of Curgus Carnes; Elizabeth, the wife, of Thomas Piles; Dora, the wife of Ed Young; Lula, who married Charles Peck; Martha, who is occupying a business position in Indianola; John Thomas, now a farmer and harnessmaker of the state of Oregon; William, a farmer of Warren county; Samuel J., who is carrying on the home farm, and Jessie, at home. The children have all been liberally educated and the older members of the family have been successful teachers.
In 1904 Mr. Park rented his farm and went west to California , spending three years on the Pacific coast. He visited many points of interest in that state, making his home, however, in Los Angeles . He was accompanied by one son and two daughters. The son was engaged in the creamery business there, while the elder daughter had charge of the trimmers in the wholesale millinery establishment in that city. In 1907, however, Mr. Park returned to the farm in Iowa , whereon he now resides. He has never cared for or desired office and when he was elected supervisor refused to qualify. He and his wife were active members of the Presbyterian church, taking a helpful interest in its work, and for years Mr. park served as presiding elder, besides filling all the other church offices, while in the Sunday school he acted as superintendent and teacher. He has been a generous contributor to the church and has put forth effective effort in its behalf. On reaching Hartford he found no church and he and five others built a Presbyterian church. Of that number he is now the only survivor.
Widely known in Hartford , Palmyra and Indianola, and in fact throughout Warren county, Mr. Park has been a witness of its growth and progress through many years and can relate many interesting incidents of the early days. He has lived to see the wild prairie grasses supplanted by large crops of the cereals best adapted to the soil and climate, while instead of wild game the finest stock is today seen. The little hamlets have grown into thriving towns and cities and many changes have occurred in the citizenship, but at all the times Warren county has been peopled by a class of enterprising and progressive men, of whom Mr. Park is a splendid type. Starting out in life on his own account at an early age, he has depended upon his own resources, and realizing the fact that untiring labor is the surest foundation for success, he has put forth strenuous effort to win prosperity. He is now in possession of a handsome competence that enables him largely to leave the arduous work of the farm to others and enjoy well merited rest.