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Luther Jipson

(Source book includes photo)

Holding worthy prestige among the leading farmers and stock raisers of Fayette county and wielding a side influence as an enterprising citizen, Luther Jipson, of Jefferson township, has long occupied a prominent place in the esteem of the public and it is a compliment worthily bestowed to class him with the representative men of his day and generation in the county honored by his residence. Mr. Jipson is a native of Fayette county, Iowa, and the younger of two children whose parents were Luther and Helen (Eldridge) Jipson, both born in Cortland county, New York. On the paternal side he is descended form sterling New England ancestry, and traces his genealogy to an early period in the history of Vermont, of which state his grandfather, Michael Jipson, was a native. In young manhood Michael Jipson went to Cortland county, New York, where in due time he married and engaged in farming, which vocation he followed with success the remainder of his life, dying in his adopted state many years ago.

Alden and Saline Eldridge, parents of Mrs. Helen Jipson, were natives of Cortland county, New York, and among the early pioneers of Fayette county, Iowa, moving to this state in 1854 and locating on the present site of Oelwein, where Mr. Eldridge procured eighty acres of land, on which he lived until his removal, a few years later, to Buchanan county. Purchasing land near Hazleton, he made a good farm and comfortable home where he spent the remainder of his days as an industrious and prosperous tiller of the soil.

Luther Jipson, senior, father of the subject, became a resident of Fayette county in 1854 and two years later purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land northeast of where Oelwein now stands, being, with the Eldridges, among the earliest settlers of that locality. He was a man of sound practical intelligence, a successful speculator, especially in lands, and became widely and favorably known as an enterprising farmer and public spirited citizen. He traveled quite extensively over Fayette and other counties in his land deals and made a number of judicious purchases which, had he lived, would have resulted greatly to his advantage. Two years after coming to this state he and one Niner Kise started one day in the month of January on a tour of inspection, intending to walk from Ft. Dodge to Twin Lake, the better to observe the country between those two points. While making their way leisurely they were overtaken by a severe storm and, being far from any home or place of shelter, both were frozen to death. Mr. Jipson's body was discovered sometime the following April, but the remains of his companion were never found, their disappearance being to this day an unsolved mystery.

For some time after her husband's death Mrs. Jipson made her home with her parents, but later she became the wife of Hiram Hanson, with whom she lived in Jefferson township until her death in the year 1860, Mr. Hanson departing this life in 1904, some years following his third marriage.

Luther and Helen Jipson, as already stated were the parents of two children, Minnie, the oldest, now Mrs. Preston Fisher, living near Luddington, Michigan; Luther, the subject of this review, being the second in order of birth. By her marriage with Mr. Hanson the mother also had two children, Ira, a farmer living on the old family homestead, and Agnes, who married William Slaughterbeck and resides in the city of Seattle, Washington. By his second marriage, with Ann Hickard, Mr. Hanson had a family of four children, namely: Tillie, Nettie, Nellie, now Mrs. Perry Harmon, and Martha, who married Charles Williams and resides in Oelwein.

Luther Jipson was born June 13, 1856, in Fayette county, Iowa, and spent his childhood at the Hiram Hanson farm in Jefferson township. His education included the branches taught in the public schools and after the death of his mother he went to live with his grandfather Jipson in Cortland county, New York, where he remained from 1863 until 1872, working on the farm and attending school the meanwhile. Returning to Iowa the latter year, he resumed agriculture, which he has since followed and, as already indicated, he is now one of the leading farmers and stock raisers of Fayette county, and as a citizen interested in all that tends to promote the material progress of the community and the welfare of the people his position and influence are second to those of none of his contemporaries.

On October 16, 1877, Mr. Jipson was married to Mary Beare, Fayette county, Iowa, and for one year thereafter he lived a short distance northeast of Oelwein, moving at the expiration of that time to Center township, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land which he made his home during the none years ensuing. After selling that farm in 1886 he bought another place southeast of Oelwein, consisting of one hundred and fifty acres, on which he resided for four and a half years, when he sold the farm and moved to Spirit Lake, in the county of Dickinson, where he purchased two hundred and forty acres of fine land which in due time were brought to a high state of cultivation and otherwise improved. Disposing of the latter place after a residence of two and a half years, he returned to Fayette county and bought his present beautiful and attractive home farm in Jefferson and Oran townships, owning at this time four hundred and sixty acres in one of the best agricultural districts of the county and, as stated in a preceding paragraph, becoming one of the leading men of his vocation in this part of the state.

Mr. Jipson cultivates the soil upon quite an extensive scale and by the most approved methods. He is progressive in all the term implies, has always stood for improvements and uses his influence to further these ends. In connection with agriculture, he devotes a great deal of attention to the breeding and raising of fine stock, making a specialty of Norman horses, shorthorn cattle, and Chester-White hogs, realizing from the sale of his domestic animals no small share of his liberal income. He also conducts a large and successful dairy business which he has made quite profitable, milking at the present time fifty cows, all carefully selected and of the best breeds obtainable.

Mr. And Mrs. Jipson began their married life in quite a modest way and the success to which they have attained and the prominent position they occupy in the community are the legitimate result of their combined efforts, directed and controlled by able and judicious management. Both are highly esteemed by their neighbors and friends and socially no couple in the township are better known and more widely respected. In his political views Mr. Jipson is a Republican, but aside from serving several terms as school director and town trustee he has held no office nor has he any aspirations for public place 9or leadership.

Mr. And Mrs. Jipson have a family of twelve children, whose names are as follows: Alice, wife of Albert Kaune, of Oran township; Effie, who married Fred Smith, of Marion, this state; Bertha, now Mrs. Arthur McClaury, of Jefferson township; Cordelia, wife of Charles Hilsenbeck, who also resides in Jefferson; Ira, who lives at home and assists his father in the management of the farm; Blanche, Leora, Amy, Inez, Ellen, Raymond L., and Mary, all of whom are still under the parental roof and with the father and mother constitute a very happy and contented household. Mr. Jipson has taken great interest in his children, providing them with the best educational advantages the county afforded and otherwise looking after their welfare. The two daughters, Effie and Bertha, taught for a number of years and were considered among the most competent and popular teachers of the county.

Mrs. Jipson is a daughter of Israel and Susan (Younkins) Beare, natives of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and early settlers of Fayette county, Iowa, migrating to that state in 1857 and locating in the county of Linn, where they resided for two years and then removed to a farm one mile east of Oelwein. Mr. Beare died in 1895, his widow, who is still living on the home place, being one of the oldest and most highly esteemed survivors of the early times. They reared a family of ten children, namely: Mrs. Mary Jipson, wife of the subject; Daniel, deceased; Cordelia, who married Stephen Heilman; William, deceased; Everett, Jay, Ray, Ida, John, the last four deceased, and Nettie, wife of William McCormich, of Scott township, Fayette county."

~transcribed for the Fayette Co IAGenWeb Project by Richard Smith