John Everall.-There is no need
for puzzling or indirection in determining the sterling
value of the life services of this venerable and honored
pioneer citizen of Clayton county, for he has marked the
passing years with earnest and effective endeavor, has
shown a high sense of personal stewardship and has held
the unequivocal confidence and esteem of those whom his
benignant influence has touched in the varied relations
of his long and useful career. Mr. Everall was born in
Shropshire, England, on the 20th of April, 1839, and in
that same section of the "right little isle"
were born and reared his parents, Richard and Elizabeth
(Liversage) Everall, folk of superior mentality and fine
attributes of character. The paternal grandfather of the
subject of this review was one of the pioneer clergymen
of the Congregational church in England, and it is worthy
of note that all of his children, seven in number, were
residents of the United States at the time of their
death. In 1851 Richard Everall came with his family to
Clayton county, Iowa, and became one of the pioneer
farmers in Farmersburg township, where his well directed
labors brought to him a generous measure of prosperity,
as gauged by the standards of the locality and period.
Both he and his wife passed the closing years of their
life in the village of Farmersburg and both were
venerable in years at the time of their death. They were
zealous members of the Congregational church, instant in
human sympathy and kindliness and in good deeds. They
became the parents of three children, and the only
survivor is the honored citizen to whom this sketch is
dedicated, he being the eldest of the number; Elizabeth
was a resident of Farmershurg at the time of her death;
and Mrs. Martha Ann (Everall) Sutton died at Bloomington,
Wisconsin. John Everall gained his rudimentary education
in his native land and supplemented this by attending the
pioneer schools of Clayton county, as well as by
individual application ,vhich, with his naturally
studious tendencies, effectively broadened his
intellectual horizon. In Clayton county he gained in his
youth a close fellowship with the work of the pioneer
farm of his father, and during many years of his active
career he continued his close allegiance to the basic
industry of agriculture, through the medium of which he
gained substantial success. He has long been one of the
prominent and influential citizens of Clayton county and
special distinction is his for the valiant service which
he rendered as a soldier of the Union in the Civil war.
From 1858 to 1862 he was a successful and popular teacher
in the schools of this county, and he abandoned his
pedagogic services only to respond to the call of higher
duty, for in August, 1862, he enlisted as a private in
Company E, Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with
which he proceeded to the front and took part in the
various engagements that marked the record of this
gallant Iowa regiment. He lived up to the full tension of
the great conflict between the states of the North and
the South, was wounded in action in July, 1864, but was
not long incapacitated for service, as he continued with
his regiment until the close of the war, rose from the
rank of first sergeant to that of first Lieutenant of his
company, and received his honorable discharge in June,
1865. In later years he has vitalized the more gracious
memories and associations of his military career by his
appreciative affiliation with the Grand Army of the
Republic. After the war Mr. Everall resumed his
association with farming in Farmersburg township, and his
ability and unqualified popularity have brought to him
many official preferments in the public service. He has
filled nearly all township offices, and for a period of
four years he was county superintendent of schools. He
was for six years the incumbent of the office of county
auditor, and for eight years he represented Clayton
county in the upper house of the Iowa Legislature. In
every public office to which he has been called he has
proved a faithful, loyal and efficient incumbent, and he
has shown himself well fortified in his opinions
concerning matters of economic and governmental polity.
He is now living virtually retired in his attractive home
at Farmersburg, and finds that his lines are cast in
pleasant places, for he is surrounded by a host of
friends who are tried and true, and is revered alike by
old and young. In a basic way he has ever given stalwart
allegiance to the Democratic party, but in local affairs
he has not been constrained by strict partisan lines, as
he has given his support to men and measures meeting the
approval of his judgment. Mr. Everall has been long and
appreciatively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity,
and for eight or nine years he held the office of master
of the lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons at
Farmersburg. In this village, on the 25th of October,
1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Everall, then a
youthful veteran of the Civil war, to Miss Vallonia
Renshaw, who was born at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on
the 9th of April, 1841. Of the seven children of this
union, five are living. Richard, the firstborn, died in
boyhood; Martha remains with her parents; John is
successfully established in the practice of law in the
city of St. Paul, Minnesota; Dr. George L. became a
representative physician and surgeon in the city of
Clinton, Iowa, but was at the old home in Farmersburg at
the time of his death; Bruce B., M. D., is engaged in the
practice of his profession at Monona, Clayton county; Dr.
Benjamin C. was engaged in the practice of medicine in
the city of Waterloo, this state, until the border
troubles with Mexico, in the summer of 1916, led to his
going to Texas as captain and surgeon of the hospital
corps of the First Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in which
capacity he is serving at the time of this writing;
Bessie E., the youngest of the children, is now an
efficient and popular teacher in the public schools of
Lake City, Minnesota. Senator Everall was one of the
leaders of his party while in the Iowa Senate and was
known for his quiet, but forceful support of wise
measures for the benefit of the people. He still takes an
active interest in the bank at Farmersburg and is known
and loved throughout the county. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; pg 114-115 |