Isaac Mohler is the oldest settler of Grant Township, where he still resides on section 16, the date of his settlement being April, 1869. He purchased his land, half of section 16, in 1867, which was of course entirely unimproved, and at that time Carroll had only commenced to be settled. When he settled on his land in 1869, his nearest neighbors were at Carroll, and in his pioneer home he experienced many of the privations and hardships which usually fall to the lot of early settlers in a new country. Mr. Mohler is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Cumberland County in 1827. When quite young he was taken by his parents, John and Susan Mohler, to Ohio, they locating in Wayne County among the early settlers, settling on a partially improved farm, and later removed with their family to Medina County, Ohio, where his father died in May, 1860. The mother is still living in Medina County. Six sons and six daughters were born to the parents, of whom our subject was the eldest son and second child. He remained under the home roof until attaining his majority, when he worked for a time at carpentering and farming. In June, 1854, he engaged to drive a team to Iowa for a man named John Hurst. He came with Mr. Hurst as far as Lisbon, in Linn County, where he stopped for a while working at his trade. In December of the same year he returned to Ohio, coming again to Iowa the following spring. May 15, 1855, he was united in marriage to Miss Eliza Jane Barclay, who was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1836, a daughter of John and Eleanor Barclay. When she was eight years old her mother died, and soon after, in September, 1845, the father emigrated to Ohio with five of his six children, the youngest, a babe, being left in the care of its maternal grandfather. Mrs. Mohler was the second child, the eldest, a son, being eleven years old when they removed to Ohio. The Barclay family lived in Ohio eight years, when, in 1853, they came to Linn County, Iowa, and three years later located in Cedar County, where the father still lives at the advanced age of eighty years. His children are all yet living with the exception of the second son, who lost his life in the army during the war of the Rebellion. Mr. Barclay was married a second time while living in Ohio, and had several children by his second wife. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mohler five are living — Mary E., wife of Philip Beechel; John B.; Cyrus Millard; Jessie, wife of John Wasmund, and Charles K. Two daughters, Fannie E. and Eugenia E., died of diphtheria in November, 1880, aged respectively eight and six years. Mrs. Mohler is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically Mr. Mohler is a Republican, having been identified with that party since its organization. No man has been more prominently identified with the history of Grant Township than Mr. Mohler. He organized the township and gave it the name it still bears, in honor of the illustrious General. He has held most of the township offices, and has always taken an active interest in any enterprise of public benefit.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~