L B Hungerford

HUNGERFORD

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/22/2010 at 17:42:27

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

L B Hungerford
By Ann Hungerford

The family started in the village of Hungerford in Berkshire, England. The earliest of whom any record is known was one Everold de Hungerford, who was alive in 1169 A.D. But the earliest whose children we know anything about was Walter Hungerford who was living 1300 A.D. His grandson was Sir Thomas Hungerford, who was first speaker of the House of Commons in 1369. His son was Sir Walter who became Lord Hungerford. The family was prominent in the early days and spread out a good bit, but his prosperity died out in England. The Mainline died out in 1680 when Sir Edward called a ‘spend thrift’, sold family property including the famous old Hungerford Castle in Berkshire, ruins of which still stand. There was a branch in Ireland and these branches of that family went to Australia and to Chicago.

Hungerford’s are an old English Stock and all known to be good Americans. Louis B Hungerford came to Woodbury County in 1845, when land sold for a song. He was a Civil War Veteran and an Indian fighter and an early farmer. He recalled a time when a yoke of oxen bought 160 acres of land at Sergeant Bluff. Born in Washington, Illinois, in 1838, he moved to Plymouth County near James, Iowa, where he worked for his Uncle Styles. The township was named Hungerford Township after the family. He served in Company L, Seventh Iowa Cavalry form 1863 to 1866, taking part in many uprisings.

To illustrate the cheapness of land, he once traded a 160-acre farm near Sergeant Bluff for a team of oxen and a barrel of Sorghum. At one time he was offered one-half block of Fourth Street near the Chicago House in exchange for yoke of oxen and a wagon. From Woodbury County he moved to Goodwin, Nebraska, where he made his home for twenty years.

Louis B Hungerford passed away February 26, 1918, at the home of his daughter, Mrs C L Ward, 1308 Douglas Street in Sioux City. Besides his widow, he had five sons: Mahlon of Waterbury, Nebraska; A P at Siebert, Colorado; W L of Stuart, Nebraska; Clarence of Leeds, Iowa; and Mark of Stuart; and four daughters: MRs Ward and Mrs Jeanette Bruford of Sioux City; Mrs Helen Hollenberg of Mendota, Illinois; and Mrs Cora Buller of Hinton, Iowa. He had nineteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was buried in Logan Park Cemetery in Sioux City.