Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 865
JOSEPH H. ROYER

Joseph H. ROYER, a well-to-do farmer of Lincoln Township, and a resident of section 5, came to the county in the spring of 1882, and purchased a quarter section of wild land upon which he now lives. Here he made necessary improvements, such as breaking up the virgin sod; erecting a house and barn, together with granary and other out-buildings. His present farm consists of three hundred and sixty acres, one third of which is under the plow. He has a fine bearing apple orchard of seventy trees, with many sbade and ornamental trees, which lend beauty to the premises. He was a soldier in the Forty-fourth Iowa Infantry, enlisting January 11, 1864.

Our subject was born in Blair County, PA, August 10, 1847. He is a son of Jacob and Eliza (ZIMMERMAN) ROYER, who were natives of the Keystone State and the parents of six children, of whom our subject was the fifth. The children were in the following order--Mary, Samuel,Daniel, Susan, Joseph and Franklin, all of whom are living. When our subject was six years old, his parents emigrates to Scott County, Iowa, believing that the growing Hawkeye State afforded better advantages for one disposed to work, tban did the rock-robbed territory of the Eastern States. When twenty-one years of age, our subject left home, which marks an important era in any young man's life. For one year he worked out by the month the next three years he broke prairie, with ox teans, in Powesheik County. From there he went to Minnesota, worked through the summer, and retraced his steps into Iowa, as far as Blackbawk County, attending school there that winter. After working in the harvest field the following summer, he went to Colorado, where he worked on a railroad, and also oil irrigation ditches. After one season he returned to Iowa, worked through harvest and canvassed for books through the winter, and then went to Blackbawk County again, where he worked in the summer, and attended the district school through the winter. Having a thirst for mor knkowledge, he attended the Seminary at Waterlo and Taught an occasional term of school, while finishing his education, after which he followed teaching in Scott County for three years, receiving $50 per month, but on account of poor health he abandoned teaching, and bought eighty acres of land in Monona County, which he farmed for three years, prior to his coming to Harrison County.

Among the more important events of this man's life, and one intended to mark his future pathway, along the line of more ocmplete happiness, was that of his marriage, which occurred in March, 1886. He chose for a life companion, Maggie CARRIGAN, the daughter of James and Amanda CARRIGAN, who had five children, our subject's wife being the oldest. The father was born in Ireland, and the mother in Virginia. Their family were Maggie, Ella, Katie, James and Harry.

Mr. And Mrs. ROYER have had their marriage union blessed by the birth of three children�Howard J., born April 11, 1887; Clarence D., October 7, 1888; and Fannie, April 7, 1800.

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