TERRY, J. L. L.

TERRY, BAGBY, GORIN, MOUNTS

Posted By: Norma Jennings (email)
Date: 10/23/2011 at 22:41:12

J. L. L. TERRY, Justice of the Peace, at Washington, is a pioneer among the pioneers of Washington County. He is a native of Kentucky, born in Hopkinsville, March 19, 1817. He comes of good old Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Stephen Terry, being a soldier in that war, and was supposed to be mortally wounded at the battle of Brandywine, Aug. 11, 1777, being then in his twentieth year, but lived until his sixty-fourth year. He was born in Louisa County, Va., where the father of our subject was also born. Stephen Terry and Mildred Bagby were married and had twelve children, eight of whom lived to be adults. Among the number was James Terry, the father of our subject, who was born in 1790, in Louisa County, Va. The family moved to Kentucky about 1809, where James Terry married Catherine Gorin, a native of Warren County, that State, born in 1797. They were the parents of three children, two of whom are living—J. L.L., and Napoleon B., now living in Hart County, Ky.

James Terry for some years was in the hotel business in Hopkinsville, Ky., while at the same time he purchased and shipped horses for the Virginia trade. In the general financial ruin that followed the breaking of forty-two independent banks in Kentucky in 1818, he was broken up, and moved South to try and mend his broken fortunes, going down the Cumberland to the Ohio, and thence to the Mississippi River on a flatboat, stopping at Natchez about two months. While there J.L.L. ran away from the hotel, going to the river, and was washed into it by the waves,from which he was rescued by a Choctaw woman. Whether the world was ever the better by her act, Mr. Terry says he has never been able to decide, though his wife says it was, and he is willing to leave the question to her better judgment.

From Natchez the family proceeded up the REd River in Louisiana, as far as Natchitoches, but returned and located at Alexandria, La., where the father died, in July, 1819, leaving a widow almost penniless, and among strangers, herself and two small children being sick. Her father sent her means to return home by water, but the yellow fever being on the river at that time, she declined to go that way. Her father then sent a friend with a wagon 500 miles through the Indian Territory for her, with whom she started home, but within ten days thereafter the man died in the wagon, leaving her among the Indians, who were kind enough to bury the man and then to lead the team to a trading station called Collins' Station, where there were seven white families. Here she remained until further arrangements were made for her to get home.

James Terry was a brick mason by trade, a very powerful man physically, being six feet seven
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inches in height, and large in proportion. He would never drink intoxicating liquors. On arriving at her father's house, Mrs. Terry, with an infant child, made that her home, while the subject of this sketch was taken by his grandmother Terry, with whom he remained until nearly ten years old. In 1827 his mother married Nathaniel D. Terry, a third cousin of her former husband, by whom she had one child, Rev. Nathaniel G., now a prominent Baptist minister in Kentucky. Mrs. Terry was a woman of great intellectual ability, and a member of the Baptist Church. She died in 1841.

On the marriage of his mother, J.L.L. returned home, but was soon afterward apprenticed to his uncle, S.P. Gorin, with whom he remained nine years, receiving only a few months' education. The day he was fifteen years of age, his uncle started to move to Illinois, accompanied by J.L.L. On arriving at Vandalia, then the capital of the State, Mr. Gorin concluded to make that his home. Here Mr. Terry says that he first felt his ignorance, the boys in whose company he was thrown having considerable sport at his expense, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to him, for he resolved that he would not always be thus ignorant. He bought, borrowed and read books, studied arithmetic and English grammar at night and on Sundays, and often being denied the use of a candle, resorted to the next best thing, that of bark and splinter light. While it may be true that his education is limited in knowledge of books taught in the schools, he has endeavored to keep pace with the advancement of the times in general reading.

In 1835 Mr. Terry returned to Kentucky during the memorable excitement created by John A. Murrill, the great western land pirate. Remaining in Kentucky two years, he then returned to Illinois, and in May of that year engaged with Gen. W.L.d. Ewing, as one of a surveying party, his contract being townships 74 and 75 north,of range 1 to 7 west, of the 5th principal meridian, a part of which is comprised in the county of Washington, Iowa. The General had such confidence in Mr. Terry and a young man by the name of Bowles, as to send them to St. Louis, Mo., to sell some half dozen horses to the United States dragoons, and with the proceeds to purchase the outfit for the trip, taking it to New Boston, Ill. After completing his surveying contract, Mr. Terry returned to Vandalia, Ill., and bought a small five miles from that place, which he cultivated during the following year, and in February, 1839, sold the same, and went to Washington, Ill. There he became acquainted with Miss Sarah J. Mounts, to whom he was married in July, 1839. Previous to this time, however, but during the same year, he came to Washington County, Iowa, and built a house on the southwest quarter of section 21, township 75, range 6.

After his marriage Mr. Terry remained in Illinois till the spring of 1840, and in March of that year went to Burlington, Iowa, to attend the land sales. After remaining a week the sales were indefinitely postponed. Being somewhat discouraged, he returned to Illinois and sold his claim in Washington County, Iowa, to R. W. Burton, leasing a farm for three years near where the village of Eureka, Ill., is now situated. He lived there when Woodford County was organized, and was elected Justice of the Peace at the first election held in that county, which office, he thinks, has haunted him ever since. In October, 1844, he repurchased his old claim in Iowa, and moved upon it during the same month. His first cabin was sixteen feet square, and the one room was a kitchen, bedroom and parlor, the furniture consisting of a Jackson bedstead, one post and hickory withes for cord, and a a dry-goods box for a table. On this farm he remained four years, but on account of the poor prospects for educating his children, he sold it for a trifle and moved to Washington, where, in company with A.J. Disney, he started the first harness-shop in that place.

In 1849 Mr. Terry was elected Clerk of the County Commissioner's Court, which office he held two years, when the law was changed to the county judge system. In 1852 he went to Richmond, English River Township, in the county, where he engaged in the harness trade for several years, then went into the dry-goods trade, and afterward in the tanning, harness and saddlery trade, and there remained until August, 1865, when he returned to Washington. When the war broke out, Mr. Terry took a great interest in securing enlistments, and
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in aid of the soldiers in the field. Among others to enlist was his oldest son, J.H. Terry, who enlisted in Co. E., 10th Iowa Vol. Inf., as a private, in August, 1861, and in February, 1862, he was promoted over the Second Lieutenant to first Lieutenant of his company, in which position he served till May 16, 1863, when, at the battle of Champion Hills, he fell, while gallantly leading his company in the charge. His remains were buried upon the battle-field, there to await the resurrection at the last day. Previous to this, he had participated in the battles of Farmington, Tenn., Iuka and Corinth, Miss., in which he had command of the company, his Captain acting as Major.
The family of Mr. Terry were all Democrats, but he says that he was a natural born Whig, and when that party died, he attended its funeral and then assisted in the organization of the Republican party, an organization which he considers has the grandest history of any political party in this country. In 1840 he became a member of the Christian Church, and his religious views are the same now as then, although he holds membership with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Washington, and loves the Church and its members. He has always been very decided in his temperance views, and has probably received more curses than coppers for the part he has taken in that cause. He helped organize the first division of the Sons of Temperance in Washington County, and assisted in the First Grand Lodge of Good Templars in the State of Iowa. He joined the Masonic fraternity in 1851, served as Master in Richmond Lodge No. 96, for four years, and attended the Grand Lodge each of those years. He advanced to the Royal Arch degree. Mr. and Mrs. Terry have had eight children, only three of whom are now living: Marcus C. lives at Brighton, in this county, and is a successful practicing physician; Josie married D.S. McConnaughey, also a successful practicing physician, and lives at Avoca, Iowa; William M. is living in Washington, engaged in the family grocer trade. All three are native born Iowans.

Mr. Terry says that he is not rich, never desired to be, but has enough, though sometimes the living was pretty rough. The great ambition of his life has been to see all of his children have homes and a respectable business occupation, which ambition has been duly realized. As stated at the beginning of this sketch, Mr. Terry is a pioneer among pioneers. He has endured all the trials and privations of pioneer life, but has lived to see the country blossom as the rose, to which he came in 1837, and made the first surveying. In looking back over those old days, one can but wonder at the courage necessary to cause one to leave the comforts of more civilized life, and endure the toils and privations incident to the settlement of a new country. But to such men as Squire Terry, much of the credit of the present wealthy county of Washington is due. To such, the present generation has good reason to stand uncovered in their presence.