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Daniel B. Haxton

Daniel B. Haxton, who has been a resident of this county for almost thirty-five years, now owns a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres, highly cultivated and improved on section 10, Putnam Township. He was born in Rochester, N. Y., January 22, 1837, and is of Welsh descent. His grandfather, a native of Wales, was the founder of the family in America. He shipped before the mast at an early age and followed the sea for many years. In later years he was Captain and owner of a vessel. At length he took up his residence in the Empire State and at a ripe old age died near New York City. His son Masina, who was named for a French general, was born in Wales and was quite young when his parents came to this country. He was a cloth-dresser by trade, which business he followed in the Empire State. He married Eliza Palmer, a native of Wales, and unto them were born five children. In politics he was a Democrat and a man of strong convictions who could well hold his own in an argument. He served in the War of 1812, and died in Ohio, at the age of sixty years. His wife afterward returned to New York and died in Michigan in 1863, while on her way West to visit her son. The children are Mrs. Eliza Brisbee, of Ovid, Mich.; Giles M., a farmer of Wheeling, Ind.; Mrs. Sarah Heath of Buffalo, N. Y.; Mrs. Julia Walsh, who died in Michigan; and Daniel B.

Our subject attended the public schools in Rochester, N. Y., until twelve years of age, when he emigrated to Ohio, where he worked as a farm hand. At the age of twenty he came to Iowa, locating on a farm which he purchased two miles south of Taylorville. On selling out he purchased his present farm in 1868. It was all wild prairie, destitute of improvements and bore little resemblance to the fine farm of today. At one time he owned two hundred acres, but eighty of this he gave to his son, retaining one hundred and twenty which he now has under a high state of cultivation. Mr. Haxton is regarded as one of the most successful and enterprising farmers of the community. He had only one cow and a span of colts when he came to this county, but he secured land, paid for it as he could and has steadily worked his way upward. The first house in which he lived had neither door nor windows, but he now has a comfortable home supplied with many of the luxuries of life.

Mr. Haxton was united in marriage in Taylorville with Lora E. Rawson, daughter of Orange and Sally A. (Heath) Rawson. Her father was killed in a threshing machine in Illinois, after which, in 1855, Mrs. Rawson came to this county where she spent her last days. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Haxton have been born four children - Frank C., who married Catherine Alsop of Dubuque, and is farming on section 16, Putnam Township; William E., who wedded Minnie Detrick and resides on a farm on section 3, in the same township; Adeline, wife of Francis M. Riche, a farmer residing near Volga City, by whom she has one child, Lucien; and James W. at home.

For a third of a century Mr. Haxton has been a resident of this county and has filled a number of local offices, proving himself a faithful citizen. His business efforts have been attended with success and he is now accounted one of the substantial citizens of the community. He has the confidence and respect of all who know him and his word is as good as his bond. He is always ready to help the poor and distressed, and is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Brush Creek. Politically he is a warm supporter of the Republican party and a stanch advocate of prohibition principles