Pennington, Thomas

PENNINGTON

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/29/2021 at 23:24:40

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.601

THOMAS PENNINGTON
Thomas Pennington is widely known in Warren County. He is prob­ably the oldest auctioneer within its borders, having engaged in this line of business since coming to the county in 1874. He was for more than a quarter of a century, actively, energetically and successfully engaged in farming near Ackworth but at the present time is living retired in Indianola, save that he is giving some attention to the real-estate business. His life is proof of the fact that success is not a matter of genius as some contend but is the out­come of clear judgment, experience and persistent effort. He came to Iowa from Ohio, his native state, his birth having there occurred in Wilmington in 1843. He was the second in a family of four children, whose parents were John and Hannah (Lacey) Peninngton, both of whom were natives of Clinton County, Ohio, the former of Scotch descent and the latter of English ancestry. They were also consistent members of the Christian church and in his political views Mr. Pennington was a Democrat. Through an active business life he devoted his energies to farming and stock-raising and thus provided a good living for his family and gained a desirable and substantial property. He died in 1872, at the age of sixty-six years, having long survived his wife, who passed away in 1854.
Through the medium of the district schools Thomas Pennington acquired his education while spending his boyhood days upon the home farm, where he was early trained to habits of industry and integrity. On leaving home he became a mechanical engineer but in the meantime he had had broad and var­ied military experiences, for through that momentous period in the history of the country when disaster threatened the Union, he stood loyally in its sup­port, joining the federal army on the 3d of March, 1862, at Wilmington, Ohio. He was assigned to duty with Company E, of the Sixty-first Ohio Vol­unteer Infantry and was mustered out after three years active service on the 6th of April 1865, at Goldsboro, North Carolina. He was wounded at the sec­ond battle of Bull Run, a box of ammunition having crushed the elbow joint. He took part in many of the long hard marches as well as in a number of the hotly contested engagements and in fact his experiences included all those which fall to the lot of the soldier.
When the war was over Mr. Pennington came to Iowa, where he remained for a year. He was afterward for two years in Kansas and for three years in Dakota. About 1874 he took up his abode in Warren County and has since been numbered among its auctioneers, being perhaps the oldest one in the county. When he removed to this county he settled on a farm near Ackworth, where he remained until 1900, being busily engaged in the tilling of the soil and the cultivation of the crops. In that year he removed to Des Moines but in 1905 returned to Indianola, where he is now living in honorable retire­ment from business cares, save that to some extent he is engaged in handling real estate.
Mr. Pennington was married in 1875 to Miss Louisa J. Haworth, who was born in Ackworth, this county, in 1854, representing one of the old pioneer families. Her parents were Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Ginder) Haworth, who came to Warren County in 1849 and entered land in Lincoln Township. Mrs. Pennington was one of the first female children born in the county. She has lived to witness remarkable changes in its appearance as the work of progress and development has been carried forward, producing a marked transforma­tion from pioneer times to the present era of advanced improvement and civili­zation. Mr. and Mrs. Pennington are the parents of a son and two daugh­ters, as follows: Orville J., who is practicing medicine in Linden, Iowa; Della Elizabeth, who has passed away, and Blanche, who is a graduate of. Simpson College and is now teaching music.
The parents belong to the Society of Friends and Mr. Pennington is en­rolled with the members of James Randolph Post, G. A. R., and also of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. His position on political questions is never an equivocal one, as he gives stalwart support to the Republican Party. Through­out his entire life he has been loyal to whatever he has believed to be right and while he has never sought to figure prominently in public affairs his life record is that of a progressive citizen and trustworthy business man.