Leon Reporter, Leon, Iowa
Thursday, October 5, l90l

PROF. LEWIS M. HASTINGS was born in Worchester County, Massachusetts, December 3, l8l3, and died at Clarinda Hospital, September 26, l90l, aged 87 years, 9 months, 23 days. At the age of seventeen he united with the Baptist Church. He attended school near Boston intending to prepare for the ministry, but at the expiration of one year felt himself unworthy of so high a calling and returned to former business pursuits. In l835 he was married to MISS MARGARET GREEN of Westerly, Rhode Island. Five children were born to them, one daughter and four sons, one of whom, LEWIS, JR., survives.

The deceased lived for some time in Virginia and five years in Oakdale, Massachusetts, where he engaged in mercantile business. In l855, he came west settling in Decatur County, Iowa. Here he engaged in the sale of Phrenological works for Fowler & Wells, and was very successful as a lecturer. In l863 he enlisted under Captain John L. Young in Co. C. Ninth Iowa Cavalry, and served his country until discharged because of disabilities resulting from a spinal injury in l865.

After the war, he settled in Garden Grove, here is wife died in l878 after a happy union of 43 years. MR. HASTINGS came to Osceola in l88l and was married to MISS EFFIE ANDERSON in l886. United with the Christian Church in l894. He was an honored member of Osceola Post G.A.R. and highly respected in all walks of life, a man whose feelings of self-sacrifice grew stronger with the years, whose cheerful face and earnest words will long be remembered by his friends.

Funeral services were conducted Saturday, September 29, by Rev. J.H. Wright of Shenandoah, and Rev. J.B. Wright, Pastor of the Christian Church in Osceola. Interment in Maple Hill Cemetery.

--OSCEOLA DEMOCRAT.

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"With permission from the Leon Journal Reporter"
January 29, 2003