Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 949
JOHN M. ERVIN

John M. ERVIN , a farmer, living on section 32, Calhoun Township, came to Harrison County in November, 1856, and at first located at the town of Magnolia, where he remained through that never to be forgotten "hard winter," and well remembers going to Galland's Grove in company with Michael Rogers after corn, when the thermometer was forty degrees below zero; and if it had not been for Mr. Rogers, he would have perished, as he had to be kept awake by slapping him on the cheek.

In the spring of 1857 our subject moved on the Boyer, in Boyer Township, where he rented land one year, and then moved to Magnolia, rented land three years, and then started for Texas, and got as far as Holt County, Mo., but could go no further, on account of the army, so he rented land there for four years, during which time he saw many a man shot down by the enemies of the Union. Our subject returned to Harrison County in the autumn of 1865 and located in Jefferson Township, but bought his present place in the spring of 1866.

Our subject was born in Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, February 24, 1828, and is the son of John and Elizabeth (MOORHEAD) ERVIN, who are of Irish descent. In the summer of 1856 his father and family of five children started overland for Iowa, being sixty days on the road. They first located at Harris Grove, where the father died in 1863, and the mother about five years later.

Our subject was first married to Sarah EARLY, a native of Virginia, and by this marriage had two children: Lucy and Ellen. The mother of these children died, and for his second wife our subject married Mary HIGHTHBATHOM, by whom eight children were born: Gideon T., John L, James L., Amia, Mary, Edward, William, and Minnie.

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