Jesse M Washburn

WASHBURN LEACH

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/15/2010 at 22:32:08

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Jesse M Washburn
Loraine E Washburn

Jesse M Washburn, born 1837, near Goshen, Oldham County, Kentucky, was the eldest son of Charles and Ann Washburn. He was married in 1858 in Charlestown, Indiana to Nancy Leach. Jesse served in the Civil War from Indiana from 1862 to 1865. Records show that he served near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Dallas, Georgia. He was mustered out at Edgefield, Tennessee. His records state that he was 5 ft 8 ½ in tall, with blue eyes, dark hair and complexion.

Affidavits in his pension records state that he lived in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois before coming to Sloan Township, Woodbury County. One of his children was born in Illinois in 1868 and another was born at Sloan in 1872. He may have come to Sloan in 1869 at the same time as his sister, Mrs Sarah Richards. The history of Woodbury County lists him as one of the first settlers of Sloan, and he served as an election judge at the first Sloan Township election on 12 October 1875. Census records list his occupation as a farmer, but he also served as a deputy sheriff, as shown by an affidavit in his pension records. Jesse’s affidavit reads, ‘In the summer of 1877 the said affiant was sitting in the store of Ed Haakinson in the town of Sloan in Woodbury County, Iowa when George Scoggin, a resident of said county, came into the store, and without any word of notice of any hostile design he picked up a scythe blade and advanced in a threatening manner upon me, but he was prevented from striking me by the intervention of bystanders. He then went outside, and I, after waiting about ten minutes, also left the store, and upon getting outside the door was without warning attacked by said Scoggin and cut in the back and side with a knife in his hands. I further declare that I had not quarrel with said Scoggin, and believe that his attack upon me was caused by his feelings of revenge for my having as deputy sheriff prevented him from outrageously assaulting one of his neighbors’.

Jesse was still living at Sloan in 1891, but by November 1899 he was living in Plymouth County, Iowa, with a Sioux City address. From there he moved to South Dakota, and by 1915 was a resident of Herrick, South Dakota, until his final illness in 1919. He died at the home of a son in Bennington, Nebraska, and is buried at Sloan Township Cemetery.

Nancy Leach, Jesse’s wife was born in 1840 in Indiana. She died at the birth of her twelfth child in 1882, and is buried in Sloan Township Cemetery. Jesse remarried in 1883 to Mrs. Wilhelmina Lewis who was deceased by 1900.

Children of Jesse and Nancy were:

1( Charles M, 1860-1875. He was killed instantly when struck by lightning while standing at the doorway of the Washburn home at Sloan. He is buried in Sloan Township Cemetery.

2( George Lewellyn ‘Lew’, 1861-1921, born Illinois. He was married 1881 to Laura Jennings. 10 of their 21 children were born in Woodbury County, and they have many descendents still in the county. Lew and Laura moved to South Dakota about 1901, and both died there.

3( Jesse Martin, 1862-1935. Born in Illinois, died at Sioux City. He and his wife, Ella Tooker, are both buried in Logan Park Cemetery, Sioux City. Parents of two sons, he still as a granddaughter, Mrs. Elmer ‘Evelyn’ Foster, living in Sioux City.

4( Carl Oscar, 1867-1902, born Illinois, married 1894 in Sioux City, to Carla E Koon; both are buried at Sloan Township Cemetery. They were the parents of three children, two of whom moved out of state; the third child, Yetta Leola, 1899-1901, is buried at Sloan.

5( Florence A, 1868, Illinois, was married 1895, Sioux City, to Charles Johnson. She probably died in Minnesota after 1921. They had two daughters and one son.

6( Lemuel S, 1870-1871, we have no records to prove whether he was born in Woodbury County.

7( John William ‘Will’, 1872-1959, born Sloan, married 1905, to Mrs Susie Leola Smith Koon. He died in Douglas County, Nebraska. She had five children by her first marriage, and they had two children born in Woodbury County. One lives in California, the other, Warren Virgil, 1905=1907, is buried at Sloan. Susie died in California.

8( Dennis Collins ‘Dan’, 1874-1957, born Sloan. Was married 1900, at Sioux City, to Henrietta Knaack. He died at Sioux City; both are buried there. They had three children who lived in Sioux City, one moved to California, in 1973; another moved to Wisconsin, and the third is believe to be in Oregon.

9( Edgar, 1875-1951, born at Sloan, married at Sioux City, 1912, to Hilma A Levin. They farmed in South Dakota, and are buried at Presho, South Dakota. They had four children.

10( Frank Herbert, 1879-1971, born at Sloan, married 1906 at Sioux City to Myrtle Lamkin; in 1917, they were farming in Section 6, West Fork Township, Woodbury County. They had three daughters born in the County. By 1929, this family had moved to New York.

11( Eldora Mae, 1881-1918, born at Sloan, was married 1902 at Sioux City to Victor Larson. They were parents of five children and farmed near Herrick, South Dakota, at the time of her death, after which the family moved to Oregon.

12( Oliver Ainsworth ‘Doc’, born 1882 at Sloan, he never married, lived in Woodbury and Plymouth Counties; he died in 1962 at LeMars, Iowa and is buried there.