SHEARER, D. M.

SHEARER, KELLENBERGER, BRIER, ROLAND, WHITMORE, FRIEND, ISRAEL, LAMPHERE

Posted By: Norma Jennings (email)
Date: 6/27/2013 at 13:33:55

D. M. SHEARER, County Surveyor, resides at Washington. He is a native of .Montgomery County, Ohio, and was born Aug. 11, 1821. His father, Valentine Shearer, a native of Trumbull County, Ohio, born in 1790, Married Miss Mary Kellenberger, a native of Maryland, born in 1795. They first settled in Montgomery County, Ohio, where they remained until about 1836, when they moved to Shelby County, the same State. In the spring of 1846 the family came to Iowa, and located near Brighton, but across the line in Jefferson County, where a fine farm was improved. Mr. and Mrs. Shearer were the parents of ten children, five of whom are yet living: D. M., of Washington, Iowa; Ann Mariah, the wife of John Brier, of Brighton , Luther, a farmer in Cass County, Neb.; Sarah, the wife of William B. Roland, of Cass County, Neb.; Valentine, also residing in the same county.
Valentine Shearer was a man well posted in the affairs of State and Nation, and politically, was a Jackson Democrat. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, of which body his wife was also a member. About 1882, when ninety-two years of age, he moved to Cass County, Neb., where he died in 1884, at the ripe old age of ninety-four years. Mrs. Shearer is- still living in that county, and is now ninety-two years of age. They lived together as man and wife sixty-four years.
The subject of this sketch was the oldest of ten children, and was reared as farmers' boys were generally in that early day, to hard work, thankful for the opportunity of attending school during the winter, when it was too cold to work. In 1845 he was married, in Shelby County, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Whitmore, a daughter of Daniel and Frances Whitmore. She was a native of that county. Before reaching his majority Mr. Shearer was apprenticed to learn the trade of a carpenter and joiner, which occupation he has followed the greater part of his life. In 1852 he came to Washington County, Iowa, locating at Brighton, where he followed his trade in connection with millwrighting. As a millwright he worked in a number of places in Iowa and Illinois. On the 9th of April, 1880, Mrs. Shearer died, leaving a kind husband and four children to mourn their loss: Frances M., the wife of A. M. Friend, of Iowa City; Olive A., the wife of M. C. Israel, a prominent merchant of Des Moines; Daniel W., agent of the C., R. I. & P. R. R. at Gallatin, Mo. ; Clara B., the wife of F. E. Lamphere, United States Express Agent, at Washington. Mrs. Shearer was a member of the United Presbyterian Church, and was highly esteemed for her many Christian graces.
In 1881, Mr. Shearer came to Washington, where he has since made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Lamphere. In the fall of 1885 he was elected Surveyor of Washington County, and has since discharged the duties of the office in a faithful manner. In politics, in early life, he was a Democrat, but when the party was hopelessly divided on the slavery question, he- became a Republican, with which party he has since acted. Religiously, he holds membership with the United Presbyterian Church of Brighton. Few men enjoy the confidence and esteem of those with whom they are acquainted more than D. M. Shearer, Surveyor of Washington County.