Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 482
JACOB BYERS

Jacob BYERS, a mechanic in the employ of the railroad repair shops, at Missouri Valley, will form the subject of this notice.

He was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 1, 1835, and is the son of Andrew and Saphronia (SPIDLE) BYERS, the former a descendant of German stock, and the latter of German-English origin. They had a family of nine children, our subject being the fifth child of the family. One brother, Thomas BYERS, is a farmer of Neosho County, Kan. Of his sister, he knows nothing definitely, but supposes that four of them are living in Indiana. The father followed farming and cabinetmaking. Both parents are dead. The father died in Ohio, and the mother in Indiana.

Our subject learned the carriage blacksmithing trade, in Hartford, Knox County, Ohio, but had only just completed the same when the Civil War broke out and threatened to dissolve the union of States. In the autumn of 1861 he enlisted in Company F, Sixty-fifth Regiment Ohio Infantry, and for three years carried a musket, and was in all the battles and marches which his Company took part in. He was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and was with Gen. William T. SHERMAN on his famous "March to the Sea." At the expiration of three years our subject re-enlisted, becoming a member of the Veteran Corps, and continued to wear the Loyal Blue until the close of the conflict. Thirty days' leave of absence was granted him in which to visit his old home, and at the expiration of this time he joined his comrades, and was at once made Bugler in his own regiment- the Sixty-fifth Ohio. The only wound he received was a slight one in the side, which, however, did not prove permanent.

At the close of the war Mr. BYERS returned to the Buckeye State, and soon joined his family at Magnolia, Iowa, to which point they had removed two years previous. Here our subject remained four years, following blacksmithing. He next located at Missouri Valley, where he has remained ever since, with the exception of four years near Creighton, Neb., where he farmed. He has been in the employ of the North-Western Railroad Company for seventeen years, working in the capacity of a blacksmith in the repair shops.

He was united in marriage October 18, 1857, in Knox County, Ohio, to Miss Matilda GOODRICH, by which marriage union three children were born- Josephine, wife of Henry RAINBOW, of Missouri Valley; Annie, deceased in infancy; and Charley W., who married Ella BUTLER, a native of Carson, Iowa. He is engaged at railroading. Henry RAINBOY and wife are the parents of one son.

Mrs. BYERS is a sister of L. M. GOODRICH of Missouri Valley, and for the family history we refer the reader to Mr. GOODRICH'S sketch. Both our subject and his wife are members of the Christian Church, and politically, he has always been a Republican. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic at Missouri Valley, and takes much interest in the Post. It will be remembered that he saw his share of hard-fought battlefields during the days of the Rebellion, including Stone River, Chickamauga, Corinth, Winchester, Pea Ridge, and Lookout Mountain, being in nineteen engagements in all.

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