John MELROSE 1817-1884

MELROSE

Posted By: Robert Neely (email)
Date: 5/28/2016 at 10:22:20

Goldfield Gazette, GOLDFIELD, Iowa, April 3, 1884. (Right two columns of page 2, of the Boone Valley Gazette. The obituary is at the bottom of the second column from the right.)

March 2, 1817 — March 31, 1884

Obituary

It is our painful duty to record the death of one of our oldest and most respected citizens, John Melrose. He moved here from Black Hawk county in 1857 and has since been a resident of Goldfield. He started a general merchandise store the year he came, freighting his goods from Waterloo. He continued in this business for twenty years and he was generally known as an honest, unsuspicious, fair dealing man, which won for him the appellation “Old Honest John.” He always identified himself on the side of right and in the interest of the community. He was a firm supporter of the temperance movement. During the 27 years he lived here he made but few enemies and many friends, enjoying the confidence of the people in a marked degree. He was many times elected justice of the peace, and township clerk, which office he held at the time of his death. He leaves a wife and six children, four boys and two girls. Three of the boys are respected young men whose interests are also identified with the growth and prosperity of our town. No citizen of Goldfield had a more enviable reputation for disinterested uprightness than Mr Melrose and the whole community join their sympathy with the bereaved family. He was buried on Wednesday in our beautiful cemetery.