Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 490
JUDGE JONAS W. CHATBURN

Judge Jonas W. CHATBURN, now a resident of Harlan, Shellby County, Iowa, who has been connected with the history of Iowa since 1850, was Judge of Harrison County from 1861 to 1863, and for many years was a member of the Board of Supervisors, will form the subject of this notice:

He was born in Lancashire, England, March 11, 1821, and at the age of fourteen years was apprentice to a machinist, served three years and then spent seven years learning the art of calico printing.

He was married December 25, 1843, to Miss Mary BURTON, a native of Lancashire. In the spring of 1845, they immigrated to America, arriving in New York, in July. He was engaged in Philadelphia for five years, working at his trade. He then went to New Jersey, where he repaired a steam saw mill, and followed the machinist’s trade until the spring of 1850, when in company with about one hundred others started West with the intention of going to Utah, but upon arriving at Council Bluffs, refused to go farther, with the Mormon band, on account of Polygamy. He lived in Mills County, Iowa, where he operated a saw-milll, and in 1853, went to Harrison County, and entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, near where Magnolia now stands. He improved this land and in 1854, in company with Stephen Mahoney, constructed the first saw mill in Harrison County, which was on Willow Creek near Magnolia. He also dressed some prairie boulders, from which he constructed a pail of mill stones, upon which he ground corn-meal, and in the manufacture of the first flour in Harrison County, Mrs. CHATBURN’s veil was used as a bolting cloth. In 1862, Thomas DAVIS and Mr. CHATBURN erected a large flouring mill at Woodbine, and in 1867, built the first mill in Shelby County, at Harlan, as well as another at the Town of Shelby.

While residing in Harrison County, the Judge walked to Kanesville, the round trip making seventy-five miles, to get the first seed corn he planted. He bought one-half bushel, paying $1.50 therefor and carried it home on his back, wading through water, knee deep, on the flats where Missouri Valley now stands.

Politically, the Judge was formerly an old-line Whig, casting his first vote for John C. Fremont, and was one of the organizers of the Republican party in 1856.

Both he and his estimable wife, are members of the Latter Day Saints Church.

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