Sources for Families from Cedar County, Iowa

It should be noted that the addresses listed may no longer be available, but the basic information included is a valuable resource.
   CALVIN W. ABBOT, Among the architects and builders whose attainments have redounded to the credit of Southern California, none is more securely launched in the public esteem than Calvin W. Abbott, formerly one of the principal upbuilders of Pasadena, and now one of the creative forces of Long Beach. Preceded by his well earned reputation he came to this town in March of 1901, and although the intervening time has been relatively short, has abundantly substantiated prevailing expectations, as evidenced particularly in the Friends' Church and the Bowyer Hotel.
   In his ancestral affiliations Mr. Abbott is fortunate, for among those bearing his name patriotism has played a conspicuous part, as well as the high moral courage and devotion to principle as lived and taught by the Society of Friends. The emigrating forefathers came from England, and evidently settled in the south, and some of their number carried muskets upon the gory battlefields of the Revolution. The paternal grandfather, John, was born in Georgia, and settled near West Milton, Miami County, Ohio, in 1817. He was a farmer by occupation, and in 1854 removed to Marshall County, Iowa, where terminated his useful and industrious life. While in Ohio he joined the Society of Friends, a faith to which his children and grandchildren have since adhered. On the farm developed by the grandfather near West Milton, Miami County, Ohio, Calvin W. Abbott was born January 21, 1840, and there also his father, Samuel, was born. The elder Abbott was reared in Ohio, and in 1852 removed to West Branch, Cedar County, Iowa, near Springdale, where he lived until his retirement. In 1884 he came to Pasadena, Cal., and died while on a visit to his son in Trinidad, Colo., three years ago. He also was a member of the Society of Friends. He married Rebecca Miles, a native of Miami county, Ohio, and daughter of William Miles, born in South Carolina. ... In 1857 he began to learn the rudiments of architecture and building at West Branch, Iowa, and in 1860 started out on his own responsibility as a contracting architect and builder. In 1874 he embarked upon an ambitious planing mill enterprise at Muscatine, Iowa, and for five years did a large business in cutting lumber, making sash, doors and other acquisitions to buildings. ... In West Branch, Iowa Mr. Abbott married Harriett Kirk, a native of Randolph County, Ind., and of this union there have been four children, three of whom are living. Everetta is now the wife of Mr. Keys, of Los Angeles, manager for the Westinghouse Electric system; Lenwood is agent of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company at Bakersfield; and Lillian is the wife of Albert Smith, of Berkeley, Cal. Albert Francis was a shoe merchant, and died in Pasadena at the age of twenty-five years. Mr. Abbott is a member of the Society of Friends, and is nationally and locally a Prohibitionist. Source:  Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California, Pp. 1263-1264.
   ASSOCIATE JUDGES: James H. Rothrock, Cedar County; appointed by the governor February 24, 1876; elected November 7, 1876, for unexpired term; re-elected November 5, 1878; re-elected November 4, 1884; re-elected November 4, 1890.
   AUDITORS OF STATE: Jonathan W. Cattell, Cedar County; elected October 12, 1858; re-elected November 6, 1860; re-elected October, 14, 1862. Source: "Progressive Men of Iowa" p.147
   GEORGE BARRINGTON, farmer, Section 7, P.O. Barclay, was born April 8, 1842, in Knox County, Ohio; son of Thomas Barrington and Elizabeth Alment. When fourteen years old he moved with his parents to Iowa, where he lived until 1873, when he came to Kansas and settled in Barclay Township on a farm containing 160 acres, which he has improved with buildings, orchard, etc., etc. Mr. Barrington was drafted into the army, but furnished a substitute. He was united in marriage July 7, 1864; to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Robert Pearson and Mary Abbott of Cedar County, Iowa. They have five children: William, born September 22, 1865; John A., born November 9, 1857; Herbert D., born February 9, 1871; Mary E., born May 14, 1875; Eva, born July 10, 1880. Mr. Barrington is an active member of the Friends Society. William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas , Osage County, Part 17 Source:  http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/cutler/osage/osage-co-p17.html
   JONATHAN BEGG, Letters: To William Chisholm, Esq., Onion Grove, Cedar County, Iowa 1860 Original file name: Begg's Letters. Source:  http://web.uvic.ca/history-robinson/X0001_Beggs_Letters.html
   JAMES S. DEWELL, is at the head of the law firm of Dewell & Garrison, of Missouri Valley. He has been county attorney of Harrison county and mayor of Missouri Valley, and has held many minor positions of trust. He was born in Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, June 16, 1857. He is a son of Nathaniel Dewell, who was born in Ohio, but moved to Indiana in an early day and to Iowa in 1855, locating at Tipton. He was a farmer by occupation, and accumulated but little until after 18. "Progressive Men of Iowa"
   EDITH HEALD EMMONS, 95, 10 Lindley Heald (Rebecca9 Hole, Charles8, Jacob7, Charles6, Jacob5, Jacob4, Thomas3, John2, Hugh1) was born in Columbiana County, Ohio 25 March 1848. He married Nancy L Fritchman (Fitchman) 6 December 1871. Nancy was born in Columbiana County, Ohio 15 April 1850. Lindley Heald and Nancy L Fritchman (Fitchman) had the following children:
1252 i. Edith L11 Heald was born in West Branch, Cedar County, Iowa 30 October 1872. She married Louis W Emmons 6 May 1903. Louis was born in Benton County, Iowa about 1872. http://209.209.38.178/genealogy/hole/d1/i0001302.htm
   HON. WILLIAM G.W. GEIGER,of Tipton, is well known throughout the state as a lawyer and politician. He possesses a fine judicial mind and great mental and physical activity. He is a native of Cedar County, born on the old homestead entered by his father, in time to be old enough to just remember the return of the boys in blue from the war of the rebellion. It was there the long winter evenings were spent in study; [p.308] there was laid the foundation for a classical education, and there were acquired the habits of industry, which have enabled him to become a man of affairs. In September, 1874, he entered college at Carthage, Ill., where he took the classical course, graduating in the spring of 1879, at the age of 22 years. At that time he received the degree of bachelor of arts, and three years later the honorary degree of master of arts. He was a member of Cicero Literary society during his college days, and as such earned considerable distinction. He commenced the study of law in the office of Wolf & Landt at Tipton in the fall of 1879, and was admitted to the bar the following year, after which he read law in the office of Blake & Hormel, at Cedar Rapids. In the fall of 1881 he opened an office in Tipton and laid the foundation for a successful professional and business career. His first fee in the practice of his profession was earned in defending one charged with a felony. He secured the discharge of his client on preliminary hearing. He now enjoys a practice that is second to none in his native county. In his fifteen years of practice he has covered all lines of court work and has had entrusted to his care many extensive and complicated cases wherein the responsibility was great, in all of which he has performed his duties to the satisfaction of all concerned. He has the confidence of the courts before which he is in almost constant practice, and is held in the highest esteem by his brothers in the profession. Mr. Geiger is a democrat and says he expects to affiliate with that party as long as its principles come nearest to his convictions, but only so long. He places party second to individual conviction. He has never held office nor sought political preferment, believing it the best policy to keep out of politics as far as possible until such a time as one has become independent as he cares to be financially. However, in 1888, when Cedar county was in the republican column, he was nominated for county attorney on the democratic ticket, and through loyalty to party permitted his name to go before the people. Although defeated, he reduced the republican majority to fourteen, running far ahead of his ticket. This splendid endorsement led to his nomination for judge of the Eighteenth judicial district in 1890, and again in 1896, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge William P. Wolf, but he was defeated in both instances by reason of the political complexion of that section. Mr. Geiger has been a diligent reader all his life and has traveled extensively. His father's home was well supplied with good books and the family custom of reading aloud stimulated the taste for profitable reading. Mr. Geiger feels grateful to his parents for the correct ideas they gave him in his boyhood, and especially for teaching him habits of industry. Jacob Geiger, father of William, was a native of Germany. He came to this country when 8 years of age, and was given a college education, after which he learned the trade of currier and tanner. He located in Cedar county in 1853, and died there in 1894, owning the same old farm he had entered, though it had grown to 520 acres. He was a candidate for congress on the greenback ticket against Hiram Price. The mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Lichtenwalter. She was born near Taneytown, Md.; came to Iowa in 1852, and here met and married Jacob Geiger. Of this marriage there are seven children living: Mrs. Anna E. Cravens, of Lake City, Minn.; W. G. W. Geiger, the subject of this sketch; Judge A. C T. Geiger, of Oberlin, Kan.; Mrs. H. Ruth Emahizer, of Oberlin, Kan.; Mrs. M. Alice Spielman, of Fairfield, Iowa; Etta I. Geiger and Jacob L. Geiger, who are now with their mother at Long Beach, Cal.
   MILTON HAWLEY, farmer, Section 25, P.0. Humboldt, was born in Stark County, Ohio, February 2, 1834, was reared on a farm. In 1858 he moved to Cedar County, Iowa, where he followed agricultural pursuits for a time, then in the name capacity in Johnson County. In October, 1869, he moved to Saline County, Mo., and in 1870 came to Kansas, locating, in February, 1871, in this township, and has since been engaged in farming and raising stock. In 1876 he moved on to his present farm, which consists of 160 acres, all well improved, and on which there is a fine orchard of about four acres. Mr. Hawley is one of the enterprising men of his neighborhood. He has filled many of the local offices, and in 1875 was elected a member of the Board of County Commissioners, which office he filled two years. Biographical sketches of Salem Twp., Allen County, "History of the State of Kansas" by William G. Cutler http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/cutler/allen/allen-co-p7.html
   JAMES HIRST, farmer, Section 18, P. O. Barclay, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in March, 1830. Is a son of Thomas and Ann Raley Hirst. His grandparents were David Hirst and Ann Smith, James Raley and Rachael Steer. He was brought up on a farm, receiving such education as the common schools and the Friends Seminary afforded. In 1855 he moved to Cedar County, Iowa, where he remained until 1871, when he came to this State and settled in Lyons County, and five years later settled in Barclay Township, where he owns a good farm. Mr. Hirst has been twice married. In Morgan County, Ohio, in August, 1854, to Miss Rachael, daughter of Abram Plummer. She died in 1855. He was again married in Cedar County, Iowa, March 18, 1858, to Anna M., daughter of Amos and Ann Maul Steer. He has six children - Elizabeth P., born September 12, 1855; Mary E., born May 16, 1859; Charles T., born September 4, 1861; Lewis T., born June 15, 1866; Clarisa D., born October 10, 1871, and Harriet J., born March 14, 1879. Mr. Hirst is a member of the Society of Friends. William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Osage County, Part 17 http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/books/cutler/osage/osage-co-p17.html
   JOHN JACOB, farmer, Section 9, Township 19, Range 13, P.0. Neosho Rapids, was born at Wheeling, Va., May 3, 1843. Two years later his parents removed to Johnson County, Iowa, where they remained upon a farm until the spring of 1862, when they came to Kansas, driving through by team. The subject of this sketch remained with his father upon his farm in Jackson Township, until after marriage. During the War of the Rebellion he was engaged for about two years in freighting for the Government between Emporia and Fort Gibson, Indian Ter. After his marriage he farmed rented land for two years, then bought eighty acres of partly improved land, situated on Dry Creek, in Jackson Township. He has since purchased land adjoining, so that he now has in his farm 240 acres, upon which he has placed valuable improvements, including a good dwelling and necessary farm buildings, and an orchard of 155 trees. He raises cattle and hogs, feeding all his crops to his own stock. Mr. Jacob has been a member of the School Board, and Treasurer of the same five or six years. He married Miss Margaret J. Runnion, of Cedar County, Iowa, December 25, 1866. She died October 17, 1872, after bearing him two children, of whom Nellie E. is now living. He married Miss Martha Shafer, of Jackson Township, March 19, 1877, by whom he has one child - Harry E. John is the son of John Jacob Sr. and Elizabeth Roth, of Wheeling, Va., married February 16, 1842, by which marriage he has had ten children, of whom John Jacob, Jr., Wilhelm, Christian, Henry, Samuel and Mary Ann Elizabeth are now living. The family lived for a time in Johnson County, Iowa. Biographical sketches of Jackson Twp., Lyon County, "History of the State of Kansas" by William G. Cutler www.ukans.edu/~histite/kancoll/books/cutler/lyon/lyon-co-p17.html 
   H.B. JEWELL, CIVIL WAR VETERAN GONE by Louise M. Farley The death Thursday, April 25, of Hiram B. Jewell, marked the passing of the last civil war veteran of southeastern Nebraska. He has been a resident of Peru since 1897, and passed away here at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Mary Cannon, with whom he made his home. He was ninety-seven years, nine months, and five days of age. Mr. Jewell's birthplace was Middletown, Ohio. He was the son of John and Miriam Burge Jewell on July 20, 1842. After the death of his father when Mr. Jewell was seven years old, he made his home with an uncle, Arch Jewell, at Dowagiac, Michigan. In 1855 he, with his mother, brothers and sisters established a home of their own in Cedar County, Iowa. There he grew to manhood, voted for Abraham Lincoln for president, and upheld his faith in Lincoln by becoming a member of the thirty-fifth Iowa Regiment, Company G Infantry as a soldier in the Union Army. His first enlistment was for a period of three years, at the end of which, he re-enlisted for the remaining duration of the war between the north and the south. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea, was wounded in the battle of Tupalo, Mississippi, in 1863, and was still confined in the hospital at Vicksburg at the close of the war. His duty to his country completed, Mr. Jewell left the south returning to Cedar County, Iowa. There, near Atalissa, Iowa, in 1867, he was united in marriage to Eliza Lambert. One son and four daughters were born to this union. In 1872, Mr. Jewell, with his family, went to Elk County, Kansas, near Coffeeville. After pioneering there for seven years he returned to Iowa, settling at Springdale where he remained until 1886. In that year, he took a claim in Dundy County, Nebraska. Moving his family to this new land, he farmed and practiced as a veterinarian surgeon. Possessing a mind intellectually keen he was ambitious for educational advantages for his children. In 1897, he again moved his family to Peru that they might benefit from the state normal school located there. This village has since been his home. Nine years ago, before the passing of his wife in death, the Jewells celebrated their sixty-fourth wedding anniversary. He was also preceded in death by two daughters, Lula (Mrs. Lorette), and Alice (Mrs. Warnock). His son George of Springdale, Iowa, and two daughters, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Canon and Mrs. Lillian Jewell Barnes of Peru, survive him. During his lifetime, Mr. Jewell was interested in the affairs of his government. He voted for nineteen presidents, and had expressed his desire to live to vote for a twentieth one. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and was a devoted student of the Bible. His Bible, from which he read daily, was sixty years old. A military service was held for him Sunday afternoon at two-thirty at the Methodist Church. Rev. H. A. Taylor, pastor of the church, conducted the services. Interment was made in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Peru. The funeral was in charge of Casey & Timms, of Auburn.
   JAMES LESLIE, farmer and stock-raiser, was born in Scotland in 1848, immigrated to America with his parents in 1851, and was reared on a farm in Cedar County, Iowa; he enlisted in February, 1863 in Company C, Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, and served until the war closed, after which he gave his attention to farming in Cedar County. He came to Thayer County, Neb., in February, 1873, and purchased 200 acres in Gilead Precinct, where he resided for six years, engaged in farming. In 1879, Mr. L. came to Belvidere - he is the owner of about six hundred acres of land, and is extensively engaged in farming and stockraising, making a specialty of Short-Horn cattle and Poland-China hogs. During the year 1880, he was also engaged in implement business at this place, and is now in connection with other pursuits engaged in buying and shipping live stock. The subject of this sketch was married in Scott County, Iowa, in 1868 to Lucy I. Wilson; they have three children - Annie, William and Myrtle. Biographical sketches of Thayer County, "Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska"
THE McCARTNEY FAMILY
EMLIN McCLAIN, chancellor of the law department of the State University of Iowa, a distinguished legal authority, author of many standard works, and best known in Iowa as the annotator of the code, both old and new, is now a resident of Iowa City, where he has been connected with the law department of the State university since 1881. He was born in Salem, Ohio, November 25, 1851. Both his parents were born in Pennsylvania, of Quaker antecedents. His father, William McClain, was of Scotch-Irish descent and was principal and proprietor of Salem institute in Ohio. He removed to Tipton, Cedar county, Iowa, in 1855, where he had charge of the public schools of the town. For a time he operated a farm in that county and afterward owned and conducted the Iowa City Commercial college, and in connection with it founded the Iowa City academy. A few months before his death, in 1877, he opened a commercial college in Des Moines. Emlin McClain lived on the farm until he was about 13 years old and his early education was obtained almost entirely at home, concluding with one year at an academy in Wilton. In 1866, at the early age of 15, he entered the State university and graduated in the philosophical course in 1871, taking the classical degree in 1872 and graduating from the law department in 1873. During his college course he was a member of the Zetagathian literary society and one of its presidents. He was also a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and was one of the commencement speakers of his collegiate and law classes. Upon the completion of his law course he [p.299] went at once as a clerk in the law office of Gatch, Wright & Runnells, in Des Moines. He was private secretary of United States Senator Geo. G. Wright, and clerk of the senate committee on claims during the two sessions of the Forty-fourth Congress, 1875-77. For the next four years, until 1881, he practiced law in Des Moines and during that time prepared McClain's Annotated Statutes of Iowa, which was published in 1880 and immediately became the standard code, regarded as an absolute necessity by every lawyer in Iowa. In 1881 he was appointed a professor in the law department of the State university, and removed to Iowa City; he was made vice chancellor in 1887 and chancellor in 1890. "Progressive Men of Iowa" Page 229
   JOHN T. MOFFITT, of Tipton, lawyer and man of affairs, is a son of Hon. Alex Moffit who was a member of the Sixteenth General Assembly of Iowa. The father was born in 1829, in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, and came with his father to America and settled in Cedar county in 1840, where he has since resided. He is a farmer and lives on his farm and personally directs the management. John T. Moffit was born on his father's farm, near Mechanicsville, Cedar county, Iowa, July 8, 1862. He attended the common schools of that county from 1868 until 1876, after which he spent three years in the Mechanicsville high school. In September, 1879, he entered the preparatory department of Cornell college, at Mt. Vernon, took the classical course, and on June 16, 1884, graduated with the degree of A. B. He was manager of the college base ball team for two years and held various offices in the Adelphian Literary society. After his college days were over he formed a law partnership with Charles E. Wheeler, under the firm name of Wheeler & Moffit, and commenced business November 1, 1887, at Tipton, Iowa. September 1, 1894, Judge J. H. Preston resigned his seat on the district bench and became associated with the firm of Wheeler & Moffit under the firm name of Preston, Wheeler & Moffit, and immediately the new firm opened an office in Cedar Rapids, to be conducted in connection with the one at Tipton. Mr. Wheeler withdrew September 1, 1897, and the firm is now Preston & Moffit. Judge Preston has charge of the business in Cedar Rapids and resides there, while Mr. Moffit looks after the practice in Tipton. They have been connected with all the important litigation of Cedar county and are regarded as a strong firm. Lieutenant-Colonel Moffit has always been a republican. He was a delegate from Iowa to the republican national convention which met at Minneapolis in 1892, being but 29 years of age at that time. He was one of the youngest members of that body, certainly the youngest of the Iowa delegation. He takes an active interest in politics, but has never sought office. In the spring of 1896, Tipton was organized into a city of the second class and he was elected its first mayor under the new order, although against his wish. He was president of the Republican club of Cedar county in 1888, and held a similar office in the McKinley club of Tipton in 1896. He was married to Miss Winifred E. Hecht, daughter of Fred and Margaret E. Hecht, at Clarence, Iowa, September 28, 1892. Has one daughter, Margaret Eleanor, born May 6, 1897. "Progressive Men of Iowa" page 299.
   HENRY MONTGOMERY, My current interest in Lanark County, Ontario is in the search for information regarding my gr-grandmother and further back. She was born Annabella MONTGOMERY in Perth, Oct 14, 1848 to Henry MONTGOMERY and Mary MULLEN. Mary died when Annabella was 11 months old (approx. Sept 1849). Henry moved to Louden (also Lowden), Iowa with another daughter and son while Annabella was raised in Perth by a cousin Mrs. Agnes McGREGOR. Also, I don't know anything about Mary MULLEN's family. Annabella moved to Iowa to join her family when she was about 19 years old. She married John Jasper SHRIVER in Cedar County, Iowa in 1869 and died June 26, 1915 and is buried at Churdan, Iowa. Henry MONTGOMERY was born in or near Perth, Scotland, according to family lore. I don't know the names or ages of Annabella's siblings. I think that Henry MONTGOMERY may be buried in Cedar County, Iowa, but don't know his birth or death date. http://globalgenealogy.com/LCGS/LCGSV2Q.HTM Harold A. Vincent, 9149 East Chirco Place, Tucson, AZ 85710, USA. Email: hvincent@prodigy.net or CLJU12A@prodigy.com or haroldvin@juno.com
   FERDINAND, CHRISTIAN AND WILHELM PETERSEN, THE SCHLESWIG LEADER, May 1, 1919. The sudden and unexpected death of Mrs. Minnie Riessen at her home here last Sunday evening, April 27, 1919, came as a great shock to all. She had been in feeble health for some time, but her condition was never considered serious, but she took a sudden relapse Sunday and expired suddenly. In her death the community loses another of its honored and highly respected citizens. Mrs. Riessen was a kindly old lady, a true and loving mother, a friend to all at all times, and a devout member of the church. She had reached the age of 74 years. The funeral was held yesterday afternoon at 1 o'clock, short services being held later at her late home and also at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Rev Ed. Firnhaber officiating. The remains were laid to rest in the Morgan Township Cemetery. The bereaved children and relatives will have the deep sympathy of all in their great loss. Mrs. Minnie Riessen, nee Petersen, was born in Koehn, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, March 10, 1845. She came to America in 1875, and to Scott County, Iowa, where she made her home for several years with her brothers, for whom she kept house. On June 9, 1880 she was married in Otter Creek township, Crawford County, Iowa to Mr. Matthais Riessen, a prosperous farmer, who preceded his faithful wife to the grave in 1901. She is survived by two sons, Henry and George, and three daughters, Mrs. Mary Koch, Mrs Ida Schaght, and Alma Riessen; two step children, Annie Roleleke, Big Stone, S.D., and Katie Herrmann, also four brothers, Henry in Germany, Ferdinand, Christain, and Wilhelm in Cedar County, Iowa, and one sister Margaretha, in Germany.
   WASHINGTON AUGUSTUS RIGBY FAMILY, (1814-1881) was born in Ohio. He came to Iowa in 1836. The following year he married Lydia Barr (1817-1896) in Bloomington (now Muscatine) in what was the first wedding in the county. They moved to Red Oak Grove (north of Tipton) where they farmed. The couple had four children, William Titus, Joshua Hopkins, Rhoda (1848-1863), and Ellen Sarah. Washington Augustus Rigby was one of the first elected clerks of Cedar County and helped form the M.E. Society in Tipton. Washington A. Rigby, his wife, and daughter Rhoda are buried in Red Oak Cemetery, south of Stanwood, Iowa.
William Titus Rigby (1841-1929) was the eldest son of Washington and Lydia. He served in the Civil War as a second lieutenant in the 24th Iowa Infantry, Company B. Later he attained the rank of captain. He was involved in the Coldwater Expedition and the Vicksburg campaign. After the war he attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, gaining his A.B. degree in 1869. It was at Cornell that he met Eva Cattron whom he married in 1869. They then went to farm his father's land and he became a banker at Mechanicsville. William T. and Eva Cattron had three children, William Cattron, Charles Longley, and Grace Kendrick. Rigby was deeply involved with veterans affairs. In 1895, he was elected secretary of the Vicksburg National Military Park Association. In 1899, he became the park's resident commissioner. He is buried at the Vicksburg National Cemetery.
   Joshua Hopkins Rigby (1844-1892) was the second child of Washington and Lydia Rigby. He too attended Cornell College and became a Methodist minister. He married Alice Fellows in 1870 and they had seven children, five of whom lived to maturity. Joshua Hopkins Rigby died from diphtheria which he contracted while aiding sick parishioners. He is buried at Mt. Vernon Cemetery, Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
Ellen Sarah Rigby Davis (1850-1943) was the youngest of Washington and Lydia's children. Like her brothers she was educated at Cornell College, graduating in 1871. She taught school at various locations until 1878. Ellen Sarah Rigby married Frank Davis and they lived for some time in Jewett City, Connecticut. They had two daughters.
   William Cattron Rigby (1871-1946) was the eldest child of William T. Rigby. He attended Cornell College and served in the army as a lawyer. He was the Chief of Insular Affairs in the Judge Advocate General's office and argued several cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He married Grace Gilruth in 1893 and they had three daughters. William Cattron Rigby is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
   Charles Longley Rigby (1874-1949) was William Titus Rigby's younger son. Following the rest of the family he graduated from Cornell College in 1894. He managed the family farm and was chief executive officer for the Union Savings Bank. In 1898, he married Jennie Billings. They had two children, C. Edward and Isabel. Charles Longley Rigby served as an Iowa State Senator from District 24 from 1925-1931. He is buried at Red Oak Cemetery, south of Stanwood, Iowa.
William Titus Rigby's youngest child and only daughter was Grace Kendrick Cameron (1876-1960). Grace married Edward Cameron; they had no children. She cared for her father in his declining years and after his death moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/MSC/ToMsc100/MsC82/MsC82.htm
 CORNELIUS V. STRYKER, A quarter of a century in Colorado would alone entitle C.V. Stryker to recognition in these columns, to say nothing of the trials and hardships withstood in the meantime. Summerset County, New Jersey, is the birthplace of our subject. He was born May 21, 1838. When two years of age his parents moved to Hamilton country, eight miles from Cincinnati, Ohio, where they resided about seven years, and then removed to Dearborn County, Indiana. After six years another removal was made, this time to Cedar County, Iowa, where more than twenty years were spent.
   Mr. Stryker moved from there to Green County, Iowa, where he resided three years, and then went to Osage County, Kansas. The latter move was necessitated on account of his health, he having been afflicted with asthma. He was married to Miss Ursula Sophia Smith on February 18, 1861, Mrs. Stryker being a native of Montgomery County, New York. She was born August 20, 1832. While in Osage County Mr. Stryker decided to come to Colorado in the hope of finding relief from his trouble, so he left his family, who returned to Iowa, and made his first trip to this state in 1875, paying $52 car fare from Omaha to Cheyenne, and $10 from Cheyenne to Denver. A few months here convinced him that Colorado was all right, so he returned to persuade his wife to come. Two more trips were made up to 1878, when Mrs. Stryker decided to come west also, the trip being made with a mule team, reaching Highland Lake on the 28th of May. ...
Mr. Stryker found relief from asthmatic troubles and his immense physique enabled him to surmount all difficulties and do the work of almost two ordinary men. ... Politically, he is an active republican; fraternally, a Master Mason.
WELTY - 5th GENERATION
   HENRY WELTY (24) was born 11 Dec 1819/1820, on the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland in the Susquehanna Valley, at York, Pennsylvania, and spent several years of his life in the Buckeye state. At about the age of thirteen years Henry's father moved the family to Orange, Ashland County, Ohio. There on the 19th February, 1649, Henry was married to ELIZABETH BEECH (BEACH) (25) and to them were 6 kids.
   In March, 1856, Henry moved his family from Ohio to Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa and took up his abode upon a farm near Rock Creek, located about five and a half miles of Tipton. On their way to Iowa, the family reached the Mississippi River and found there was no bridge, so they crossed on the ice at Davenport.
   Approximately 12 years later he removed to a farm at Virginia Grove, about three half miles southeast of Tipton, there residing for seven years, after which he established his home on a farm near Clarence, Iowa, where he resided until after the death of h which occurred on the 26th of December, 1877 or 1878.
   Elizabeth was born in Germany on 8 Jan 1822. She was only nine or eleven years age when she accompanied her parents on their emigration to America, the family lived in Richland County, Ohio, where she resided until coming to Iowa with Henry.
Subsequently Henry married Mrs. Cline and after her demise wedded Mrs. Margaret Foreman. Following her death in 1896 he made his home with his son, William R., and his daughter, Mrs. Joseph Owen, in Clarence Iowa, to the time of his death.
Henry finally retired, selling out to his sons, W.R. and G.F. Ten years later he purchased his brother's interest and is now engaged in farming alone. Henry spent days in Tipton, dying there 7 Feb, 1906/1907. He was a painter, farmer and cabinet by trade. Source: Welty by Don Smith dsmith@mpeak.com/don
   OTIS BLAIR WYANT, one of the leading physicians of Tipton, Cedar County, is the son of Isaac Wyant, who came to Iowa in the early fifties, and was one of the pioneers in the settling of Cedar county. Upon a farm in Iowa township he made his home, brought up a family of eight boys and girls, and was one of the leading citizens of the county. In politics he was a democrat, and his son has inherited his father's opinions in that respect. Mr. Wyant was a progressive, wide-awake farmer, as is evidenced by the fact that the first McCormick reaper ever brought west of the Mississippi river, was bought by him for use upon his farm. In the early days all of his trading was done at Davenport and Muscatine, they being then the nearest trading points.
   Otis B. Wyant, the youngest of this family of children, was born in Cedar county, January 6, 1865. Until he was 17 years old he remained at home, attending the country school, and later, the West Liberty high school, working on the farm during his vacations. His medical studies were pursued at the State University of Iowa, and at Rush Medical college, Chicago; from the latter school he graduated, the youngest member of a class of 160, in February, 1886, being then just 21 years of age. So fine was his standing in his class that he was offered, upon graduation, an assistantship to a prominent specialist of Philadelphia. Immediately after finishing his medical studies, Dr. Wyant came back to Cedar county, locating at Clarence, where he built up a large practice in a few months. Here he remained until 1890, when, desiring to study further, he returned to Chicago, where he spent eleven months in the different hospitals and in taking post-graduate courses of study.
   JOHN YEAGER FAMILY, On a winter day some twenty years earlier, twelve-year-old Erastus Yeager - embarrassingly small for his age and conspicuously noticeable to the other children for his shock of dark-red hair - had faced another crisis in another unsettled country. But then he had relied upon the support of two older brothers. In turn, two younger sisters and one brother had been in need of comfort from him. The frightening occasion had been the opening of winter term in the new school built in a remote community of Iowa Territory, which was itself but five years old. It was not only the fear of a first day at the new school which gave the six Yeager children butterflies in the stomach; they had recently been taken from their comfortable and familiar home in Indiana, where all had been born, to settle a land still inhabited by Indians. The soil their parents - John and Sarah Jane Yeager - had chosen to bring under cultivation was fertile. .............. (John), who had attained an education before marrying, was practicing law in town as well as operating a farm and mill. As years passed, the family continued to grow. The six children had three new brothers and sisters, who one by one took a bench seat at the school, while the older children were completing their learning and one by one leaving home to marry or take their own Muscatine County farmland.
Shortly after Erastus turned seventeen, his parents had their tenth and last child, a daughter whom they named for her mother. But Sarah Jane, now forty, did not survive the difficult birth. At age fifty-four, John was left to both support and rear his family. After two years as a widower, he journeyed to their old home in Indiana, married the daughter of a former neighbor, and brought the seventeen year old back to Iowa. Amanda, the stepmother, was greeted with distrust, but she was so kind and unassuming that she eventually won over even the married children. Her presence in the home allowed John time for community work, a service generations of Yeagers had rendered since 1717, the year their German forefather had immigrated to Virginia. Both William and Austin, Erastus's older brothers, joined their father in local politics. With Austin serving as polling clerk, the three male Yeagers who had reached a majority and eighty-eight other Muscatine County residents cast ballots in the 1851 election.
   Shortly before the arrival of the stepmother, who was two years his junior, Erastus had left home. He had developed into a young man of slight yet sinewy build who stood five foot five. Despite his even temper and courteous manner, he alone of the five older children had failed to find a mate. On leaving his father's home, he had moved in with his brother [William] and sister-in-law and their infant daughter and worked on William's farm. But William was not content to be an Iowa farmer. Restless to move farther west, he sold his Muscatine property and headed for Washington Territory, taking his own family and younger brother. William and Erastus's departure marked the beginning of the disintegration of the closely knit clan. Other brothers and sisters migrated to Kansas Territory, and John, who was now declining in health, moved to a smaller farm located on Sugar Creek in nearby Cedar County. Despite the absence of the five older children, he once more had eight youngsters to support: five by Sarah Jane and three by Amanda. ... But his attempt to homestead at age sixty proved more than his health could withstand. On his deathbed, he entrusted the care of his large family to the young widow. Amanda held the family together for a few years, but when she also became sick and died, the eight orphans were forced to move in with an older sister and her husband. Then with the outbreak of the Civil War, three Yeager brothers enlisted in the infantry. Thus the thirteen children of the deceased lawyer were literally scattered from coast to coast.
   In the Far West, William settled his growing family into a log cabin, and he and Erastus broke new farmland. .......... But when he wrote home about his wilderness experiences, family members still in Iowa replied that their community was suffering problems similar to those in Walla Walla. A rash of horse thievery had left many farmers without a team to cultivate their crops, and certain citizens had banded together to form a regulating society. Mr. Corry, a former neighbor of the Yeagers, had circulated a rumor that an industrious young settler named Alonzo Page was actually a member of the horse thief gang. One night while Page was sitting up with his critically ill wife, the couple heard a noise in the clearing. Peeping out the single window, Page saw a ring of horsemen surrounding their cabin. Then a fierce pounding came at the door. Realizing it must be the regulators, Page called out the window that his wife was near death, but the pounding continued. Quickly he barricaded the door and loaded his shotgun, but before he could reach the window, assailants broke down the door and shot him. Then the regulators rode away, leaving the bedridden wife and her mortally wounded husband to their fate. Later the killers learned that Page was innocent and that Corry had started the false rumor out of personal enmity. The incident had provided Cedar County with a sobering lesson: not only could summary execution take the life of the innocent, but a vengeful individual could use a regulating society as a tool against personal enemies. It was a lesson the new territories would have to learn for themselves.

   Vigilante Victims, The first Two Hangings
"Progressive Men of Iowa" Chapter XI - When Kansas was invaded in 1855-6 by armed hordes of Missouri ruffians, for the purpose [of forcing slavery into that territory, many citizens of Iowa moved there to help make it a free state. For several years Kansas became the battleground of the contending forces. John Brown, who went to Kansas in the fall of 1855, expected a bloody conflict over slavery, and went there to take part in it. He passed through Iowa in September of that year with a son and son-in-law, and joined four sons who were already living in that territory. Heat once began to organize the free state men in military companies to resist the "border ruffian" invaders from Missouri, and soon became a famous leader among the free state men. At the battle of Black Jack his little army, in which five of his sons were serving, after a hard fight compelled the surrender of a band of invaders twice as large as his own little army. This was the first bloody conflict for the overthrow of slavery, yet few besides John Brown at that time realized its mighty significance. His mission was the overthrow of slavery, and never during the few remaining years of his life did he for a moment waver from his inflexible purpose. Every energy of this remarkable man was henceforth concentrated upon the great work that he religiously believed that he was ordained to accomplish. Many young men from Iowa enlisted under John Brown and participated in his warfare against slavery, and several of them joined him in his Harper's Ferry raid a few years later. Brown made five trips through Iowa while engaged in the Kansas conflict, learned the location of many of the stations on the "underground railroad," and became acquainted with a large number of Iowa men who were in active sympathy with the free state cause, and were always ready to assist slaves on their road to freedom. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of slaves traveled safely over the various lines of "underground railroad" through Iowa from 1850 to 1860. Richard J. Hinton, who was actively engaged in the Kansas war, was one of the young men who in 1856 marched from Iowa City to Lawrence, Kan., to reinforce the free state men. At Iowa City they took 1,500 muskets from the armory. The key had been left on Governor Grimes' desk, and Hinton borrowed it to open the door of the armory. When they reached the Kansas line the Rev. Pardee Butler took charge of the muskets and safely conveyed them to the free state commanders. Mr. Butler was a well known Christian minister, who lived several years at Posten's Grove, in Cedar county, Iowa, and had moved to Kansas in 1854. He was an active free state leader and had been seized by a band of border ruffians at Atchison and placed upon a raft made of three logs and set adrift on the Missouri river. They painted his face black and warned him never to return or they would kill him. But Pardee Butler was not a man to be intimidated, and, managing to land some miles below, he returned to his home, armed himself, and defied the ruffians. He never ceased his work in the good cause until Kansas became a free state.
George B. Gill, Barclay Coppoc, Jeremiah G. Anderson and Charles P. Moffett, all young men from Iowa, took an active part in the Kansas war [p.73] to save it from slavery. Some of them served under John Brown in Kansas, and afterwards enlisted in his Harper's Ferry expedition. West Branch in 1856 was a little country village in a Quaker settlement in the southwest corner of Cedar county, Iowa. At that time a Quaker, James Townsend, kept a public house there called the "Traveler's Rest." In October, 1856, John Brown on his way east from Kansas, on horseback, stopped at Townsend's over night. He informed the landlord that he was the John Brown, of Kansas, who had a large reward offered for his capture by Missouri slaveholders. Townsend gave him a warm welcome and told him of the large Quaker settlement at Springdale, four miles east. Brown knew that the Quakers were all opposed to slavery and made many friends among them.
On the 19th, Edwin Coppoc, Green and Copeland were taken to Charleston jail, which was guarded by state militia with two cannon trained on it. Edwin's trial began on the afternoon of November 1st and ended next day with his conviction. He was sentenced to be hung on the 16th of December. He bore himself bravely through the ordeal and calmly awaited his doom. He and Cook were confined in the same cell and were very warm friends. Great sympathy was felt for Edwin Coppoc, and it was not confined to his Ohio and Iowa friends. [p.81] Even Governor Wise could not refrain from expressing his admiration for his noble bearing through all the trying scenes of the battle, the surrender, the trial and conviction. He asked no favors, made no complaints, but calmly accepted the consequences of his heroic effort to free the slaves. He faced his awful doom without a murmur. His grandfather and uncle from Salem, Ohio, and Thomas Gwynn, of Cedar county, Iowa, went down to Virginia to appeal to Governor Wise for a commutation of his sentence to imprisonment, and to his credit let it be known that the governor made such a recommendation to the legislature, as in cases of treason he had not the power to interfere. A committee of that body recommended the commutation, but the Virginia legislature demanded his death. Shields Green, the faithful negro, managed to secrete an old knife when captured, which he now gave to Coppoc. Edwin contrived to notch the blade into a rude saw. With this he and Cook sawed the shackles from their limbs and, digging a hole through the brick wall of their cell the night before execution, they made a bold strike for freedom. But the guards discovered them as they crept out and they were returned to their cell. Source: "Progressive Men of Iowa" Chapter XII.
  The young man who so narrowly escaped death [p.85] the second time, was not to be intimidated by dangers. Barclay Coppoc never ceased his war upon slavery. Early in the summer of 1860 he went to Kansas and aided some Missouri slaves to freedom. When the civil war began, he hastened to join the Union army, and was commissioned a lieutenant in the Fourth Kansas Volunteers, commanded by the gallant Colonel Montgomery, of Kansas war fame. Lieutenant Coppoc was sent to his old home in Iowa to secure recruits who wanted to serve under him. On his return with them he met his death on the 30th day of August, 1861, from the burning of a railroad bridge by Missouri guerrillas, precipitating the train he was on eighty feet into the Platte river. A large number were killed and wounded. Lieutenant Coppoc's body was taken to Leavenworth, and buried in Pilot Knob cemetery. On a fine soldiers' monument erected at Tipton, near his old home, by the patriotic people of Cedar county, to the memory of its citizen soldiers who gave their lives for their country in the rebellion, is inscribed the name of Barclay Coppoc. Source: "Progressive Men of Iowa"
   CHIEF JUSTICES: James H. Rothrock, Cedar County; January 1, 1878.
   Mr. Pryce participated in all the battles and campaigns in which his regiment was engaged, and never missed a day's service. He was for a long time regimental adjutant, and was promoted to the captaincy of his company; served on the staff of [p.312] General Molineux of New York as inspector-general, and the last year as assistant adjutant-general of the Second brigade, second division, Nineteenth army corps, and was one of the youngest officers of this rank in the volunteer service. With thirteen officers of other regiments and Sergeant Major George Remley of the Twenty-second, who was killed in this battle, be is mentioned in general orders, now published in the official register, for conspicuous bravery at the battle of Winchester. He was one of the first officers to meet General Sheridan on the Winchester road on the retreat at Cedar Creek and saw him rally the scattered remnants and heard the magic words that turned defeat into victory. He was sent in command of a scouting party to reconnoitre Fisher's hill with ten picked men. and spent the entire night, at times, inside of the enemy's lines, returning before daylight the next morning, and made his report in person to Generals Sheridan, Custer and the other famous generals of this campaign. The charge was made in a few hours and the position taken. He wrote the reports of the regiment for the adjutant general of the state, and a history of the regiment which was published in pamphlet form in the name of the regimental bugler. Ingersoll, in his history of "Iowa and the Rebellion," refers to Adjutant Pryce's generous praise of officers of his regiment in his reports to Adjutant-General Baker, and says "It is for me to say, on the authority of eye witnesses, that in this great battle where not a single man faltered, no one acquitted himself more handsomely than he did himself." In the early spring of 1865 he came to Iowa, hoping to find an opening for business where enterprise, energy and courage might supply the lack of money, and located at West Branch, Cedar county. He soon secured a clerkship in the general store of Mr. Joseph Steere and was for over two years in his employ as clerk at West Branch, and manager of his store at Springdale. During that time he had taken up the study of dentistry and after leaving the store went to Iowa City and completed a course of study in the office of Dr. N. H. Tulloss, and commenced practice on January 1, 1868, at Wilton Junction. Source: "Progressive Men of Iowa" page 312.
   SECRETARIES OF STATE: Ed Wright, Cedar County; elected October 9, 1866; re-elected November 3, 1868; re-elected October 11, 1870.