Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 733
WILLIAM BRAYTON

William BRAYTON of Logan, one of the early settlers of Harrison County, was born in Rock Island, Illinois, September 15, 1838. He is the son of Stephen and Catherine (COLEMAN) BRAYTON. The father was born in Lower Canada, and the mother in Pennsylvania. The father died in Rock Island County, Illinois, in 1882, at the age of seventy-five years. He settled in the above county in 1834. The mother still (in 1891) survives and is seventy-eight years of age. They were farmers throughout their days, and reared a family of eleven children, as follows: Mary J., widow of B.F. BROWN, a resident of Dallas County, Iowa; Joseph, deceased, was in Company H, Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and died while in the service of his country; Stephen, a resident of Illinois, was in Company H, Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and lost his right arm at the siege of Vicksburg; William, our subject; Coleman, a resident of Illinois, served three month's service in the Civil War; Gideon F., a resident of Persia, Harrison County, Iowa, served in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry for three years; Lucy A., deceased, wife of B.F. BROWN; Elizabeth, wife of James SEDAM, of Rock Island, Illinois; John, a resident of Nebraska, and two children who died in early childhood.

William, our subject, was reared in Rock Island County, Ill., amid the scenes of farm-life, and educated in the public schools. At the age of twenty-one he commenced to do for himself. For ten summers in succession he broke prairie, before and after he was of age. August 11, 1862, when the mutterings of the great conflict -- the Civil War -- were heard and men were being offered by the hundreds of thousands, our subject enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry, and served until August 12, 1865. After his discharge he returned to his old home in Illinois, and in September of the same year, he engaged in the Government employ, in the telegraph service, and was sent to Arkansas, and remained at this until April 1866, and then went to Jansas and spent a year at various pursuits, spent the following winter in Illinois, and in March, 1868, came to Harrison County, Iowa, crossing the Mississippi River on the fourth day of that month, on the ice, with wagon and team, making the entire trip by wagon. For two years he rented a farm, and engaged at breaking prairie. His first crop of wheat was taken by the grasshoppers, which was rather discouraging to a new beginner in a new country, but he kept pressing onward toward success. After having been in the country a little over one year, in July, 1869, his father-in-law gave him a deed to sixty acres of prairie and timber land, and he purchased a tract of forty acres of slightly improved land, located on section 7, of Jefferson Township, and October 15, of that year he moved his family, consisting of himself and wife, to his new home, where they lived and labored until 1891, with the exception of two years, 1882-83, when they lived with the father of our subject's wife (Henry REEL). Mr. BRAYTON kept adding to his landed estate from time to time, until he owned two hundred and sixteen acres. They first commenced house keeping in a shanty fourteen feet square and one story high, which served them four years, at which time they erected a more commodious abode. And again in 1881, they erected a fine two-story brick farm house, which now graces the farm.

Our subject made valuable improvements upon this land, and put in a fine system of water-works for stock purposes. He has always devoted himself to farming and stock-raising, and March 2, 1891, having sold his farm, moved to the old homestead farm belonging to the late Henry REEL, who was his wife's father. This place adjoins the northwest corner of the corporation of Logan. The same consists of fifty-one acres, which he purchased and is now improving, having made an addition to the residence, and has contructed a system of water-works for domestic and stock purposes. August 22, 1891, he purchased the livery barn of G.O. CURTIS, of Logan.

Our subject was united in marriage December 27, 1868, to Lydia REEL, the only surviving child of pioneers Henry and Catherine REEL, whose sketch appears in this work. Mrs. BRAYTON was born May 31, 1841, in Putnam County, Indiana, and came to Iowa with her parents early in the 1850's. Mr. and Mrs. BRAYTON are the parents of eight children -- a daughter who died in infancy; and Effie C., born August 31, 1870; Henrietta E, June 14, 1872; John B., December 4, 1873, died April 25, 1874; Martha J., Jauary 14, 1875; Cynthia I., January 8, 1877; William P., March 31, 1878; and Mary A., August 8, 1880.

Our subject and his wife are members of the Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church. Politically, Mr. BRAYTON is a radical Republican.

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