Elijah R. Belvel

BELVEL, HELTON

Posted By: Dana Roquet (email)
Date: 10/26/2010 at 12:29:28

Portrait & Historical Record of Wayne and Appanoose Counties in Iowa
Chicago Inter-State Publishing 1886

Elijah R. Belvel, general merchant, Lineville, Iowa, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, November 18, 1839. In 1849 his father, Henry V. Belvel, moved to Jasper County, Missouri, where he died in 1852. In the fall of the same year our subject accompanied his mother to Knox County, Illinois, and in the fall of 1857 came to Wayne County, Iowa, locating in Lineville in the spring of 1858. In 1858 and 1859 he carried the mail on horseback from Princeton to Chariton, his headquarters being at Lineville, and received $10 a month for his services. He served a year and a half as an apprentice at the cabinet-maker’s trade.

After the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, he enlisted and was assigned to Company M, Third Iowa Cavalry. He participated in the battle at Pea Ridge, but served only nine months, when, on account of ill heath, he was discharged and returned home, and for a year had charge of his brother’s property, the latter being in the army.

He then went to Chariton, and until the spring of 1864, carried the mail for Chariton to Newton, Iowa, on horseback, after which he went to Corydon and clerked in the post office until the following fall, when he returned to Lineville and bought the cabinet shop where he had worked as an apprentice, which he carried on about a year. From 1865 until 1866 he was employed in the store of Saylor & Lovett, and in the summer of the latter year engaged in business on his own account, buying about $300 worth of groceries. Ten months later he sold his stock and services for a year to J.S. Saylor. In March, 1869, he began clerking for Lovett & Sullivan, and a year later, Mr. Sullivan having died, he became a partner of Mr. Lovett. August 15, 1872, they sold their stock to Laughlin and Wasson, and in the fall of 1873 he again engaged in the grocery business. In October, 1874 he bought the stock of general merchandise of the administrators of H. A. Laughlin, and since then has conducted his present business, having a stock valued at $12,000 and an annual business of from $25,000 to $30,000. In the winter of 1881 he built his fine brick block, the lower floor of which he occupies.

Mr. Belvel was married February 21, 1871, to Margaret A. Helton, daughter of Mitchell A. Helton, of Lineville. But two of the children born to them are living—Marlowe A. and Annie L. Martha G. Belvel, a niece of Mr. Belvel, makes her home with them, her mother having died when she was an infant. Mr. Belvel is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Good Templars. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.