Richard Probert (deceased) was born in Muerikirk, Scotland, May 12, 1824, and was a son of William and Jeannette (Jamison) Probert. He obtained a good education and learned the iron-working trade in his native country, and was there married, on June 16, 1848, to Mary Longmuir, a native of Scotland, and a daughter of Robert and Marion (Patterson) Longmuir. In 1850 he came to America, and in 1851 his wife came, she having been detained on account of the illness of one of her children. They went to Pittsburg, Penn., where Mr. Probert followed his trade of puddling steel and iron, and was the first to work the steam hammers. They came to Iowa and settled on a farm in what is now Fayette and Clayton Counties, where they remained four years, then returned to Pittsburg. He took charge of the iron works there, and made plates for iron-clad boats, under Government contract. He manufactured half of the plates for the first iron-clad gunboat used in the United States. In 1860 he returned to Clayton County, and engaged in farming and attending to his work in Pittsburg until his death, which occurred Jan. 10, 1864. He was an honored and esteemed citizen of Clayton County, and received and merited the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Probert had eight children, seven living--Marion, now Mrs. Joseph Copeland; William, married Sarah E. Hawthorn; Jeannette, married John Peterman; Mary J., Richard, James and Cecilia. Mrs. Probert owns a farm of 460 acres of finely cultivated land in Highland Township, and eighty in Fayette County. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa, 1882, p. 847 |