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1907 Past and Present Biographies

David Harris Huston

David Harris Huston, a well known hardware merchant of Jefferson, was born in Miami county, Ohio, in 1854. His grandparents were David and Mary (Barnett) Huston, the former born in Pennsylvania in 1767. He went to Ohio in a very early day, locating in Greene county, where he lived until the time of his demise in 1843. He was very prominently identified with all the interests of his community and served on the bench for three terms of seven years each. He was also a most influential legislator and a prominent agriculturist. He was twice married, his second wife being Mrs. Sarah Hall McCormick, by whom he had four children. His family numbered altogether nineteen children, of whom Luther B., the father of our subject, was the fourteenth in order of birth, and is the only one now living.

Luther B. Huston was born in 1820 and received his education in the schools of Ohio, remaining under the parental roof until he had reached the age of twenty-three years, at which time his father died. He then lived with a brother for about a year, being in poor health, and afterward went to live with his brother Paul, a medical practitioner of Paris, Illinois, who died at the age of eighty-seven years. While residing in Paris, Luther B. Huston was married, in September, 1844, to Elizabeth Frances Gordon, who was born in Kentucky on the 21st of October, 1821. Her parents were James and Mary (Riley) Gordon, both of whom were natives of Kentucky, whence they removed to Bloomfield, Illinois, where the father conducted a tannery, mercantile store and was also engaged in the hotel business in partnership with his brother. When their daughter Elizabeth was seven years of age Mr. and Mrs. Gordon removed to Paris, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Luther B. Huston became the parents of seven children, as follows: William, who died in infancy; A. G. residing in Jefferson, Iowa, where he is employed by Swift & Company; James A., an agriculturist of Alberta, Canada; Mary M., the wife of James M. Mills, residing near Grant City, Missouri, where he is engaged in the raising of fine stock; D. H., the subject of this review; Susan A., who passed away in Iowa; and Charles, whose death occurred in Paris, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Luther B. Huston went to Miami county, Ohio, shortly after their marriage. They left there in 1856 for Paris, Illinois, where they remained until 1866, when they removed to Bedford, Taylor county, Iowa, where they had purchased a farm in 1859. They were about to lose some money on the transaction and so came out to look over the land. They found the soil so rich that they removed here, improving the farm in every respect. At a much earlier date they had offered this land for sale at two dollars and a half an acre, but found no purchaser at that price. In 1900, after they had put much hard labor upon the land, they sold a part of it for fifty dollars an acre, reserving one section, which they gave to a couple of their sons. In 1895 they gave up farming and moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they remained until 1902. Mr. Huston was struck by a railroad engine, knocked off the track and so injured that he has never fully recovered. In consequence he gave up active work and now owns a good home in Jefferson, where he expects to spend his remaining days. He and his wife have been members of the Presbyterian church for over fifty years. The republican party has always counted upon him for hearty support.

David H. Huston was reared to manhood under the parental roof and received his early educational advantages in the public schools of Paris, Illinois, and Burlington, Iowa. At the age of twenty-two he was employed in a wholesale hardware store by a firm for which he later traveled extensively. So interested did he become in this business that he bought a large hardware store in South Omaha in 1893 and conducted this for two years, when he sold out. He once more went upon the road and continued traveling until 1898, when he bought his hardware business in Jefferson. In addition to this he has become manager for one of the largest land brokerage enterprises in Iowa and Missouri.

In 1878 David H. Huston was married to Miss M. E. Ragan, a native'of Hendricks county, Indiana, born in 1855. She is a daughter of Z. S. and Maria Hannah Ragan, both natives of Kentucky, where they were well known agriculturists. They came west in 1866, locating in Missouri. Mr. Ragan enlisted in the Union army at the first call to arms and served as an officer in General Harrison’s command, being mustered out at the close of hostilities. He also served as senator from Indiana, and in Missouri was extensively engaged in horticultural pursuits, being president of the Missouri Horticultural Society at the time of his death, which occurred in 1888 while he was residing in California, to which state he had removed in 1886. He was seventy-one years of age at the time of his demise and was buried in Santa Ana. His wife had been born in the year 1828 and passed away in Indiana. In their family were four children: Gilbert A., who resides near Independence, Missouri; Nannie, who lives in Los Angeles, California; Laura E. Lewis, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri; and Mrs. Huston. Mr. and Mrs. Huston are the parents of three children: Mabel, who married Dr. Herbert Kettell, a leading dentist in Jefferson; Nannette, who is at home; and Russell R., a resident of Jefferson.

In his political affiliations Mr. Huston is a republican and in the matter of religion gives his support to the Presbyterian church. His travels in his business interests have taken him over a wide field, where he has made a large acquaintance who hold him in the highest esteem, both as a business man and as a citizen. His careful management and enterprise have made him successful and his career has ever been such as to warrant the trust and confidence of the business world.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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