Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 469
JOHN W. STOCKER

John W. STOCKER (Portrait), a busy business man, and the present Postmaster at Logan, will be spoken of in this connection, as being on of the number of those who braved Harrison County when it was almost a wilderness. He came to the county in March, 1857, locating at Little Sioux, where he engaged at work as a carpenter and sawmill hand. He labored in that vicinity until the breaking out of the Civil war, and August 18, 1862, enlisted as a member of Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, serving his country, as only the brave and self-sacrificing will, until August 10, 1865, at which time he was mustered out of the Union Army at New Orleans. Receiving his final discharge at Davenport, Iowa, September 1, of that year. He entered the service as a private, but through bravery and competency was promoted to First Lieutenant. He participated in many engagements, among which may be named the following; Shell Mound, Miss., March, 1863; Helena, Ark., July 4, 1863; Prairie Duane, Camden, surrender at Mobile, Ala., April 12, 1865, which siege commenced March 17; a small engagement at the village of Whistler, April 13, 1865, which was perhaps the last engagement of the war.

After leaving the service our subject came to Harrison County and purchased an interest in the Woodbine Woolen Mills. In order to enter this enterprise he took what money he had saved, while playing the role of a soldier, together with what his land near Little Sioux had brought him, making about $1,000 in all. The woolen mills at that time were run under the firm name of BARTEMUS, STOCKER & Co. Our subject not finding this business profitable, owing to the decline of woolen goods, the scarcity of sheep in this locality, as well as heavy Eastern competition, in April, 1866, he sold his interest to J. W. DALLEY. He then went to Magnolia, which was still the county seat, and engaged in the furniture trade with C. S. STOWELL, renting a building the first year and later erecting one of their own.

At the general election of 1866, our subject was elected to the office of Clerk of the Courts, serving two terms, still retaining his interest in the furniture business, but before the term of his office had expired, he purchased his partner's interest, and a short time afterward closed out the furniture business and sold the building to N.B. HARDY, who turned it into a dwelling. After this Mr. STOCKEER went on a farm, situated on section 11, of Magnolia Township; it was a two hundred and forty-acre tract of wild land, which he finally brought under a high state of cultivation, and on which he built a good farm house. He sold his place in the spring of 1877, and moved to Logan, which place the year previous had secured the county seat. During that year he made a trip to California, remaining about two months and the remainder of the time he was occupied in adjusting old business matters. His next business was that of buying corn, cattle and hogs, in which he was quite successful, and in which he is still engaged, in connection with the extensive grocery business which he established in 1879, first locating in what was known as the FOREMAN& GREENOUGH building.

Our subject built his present brick business house in 1882, moving in to the same November 1, 1882.

He of whom we write was born in Caldonia County, Vt., June 2, 1835, and is a son of Samuel and Calista (FULLERTON) STOCKER, and is the second child of a family of three children. His father was a Methodist minister and had also learned the stonemason's trade; he died in McHenry County, Ill., in 1880, at the age of eight-four years. His wife, the mother of our subject, died in the autumn of 1840. Our subject thrown out thus early in life, upon his own resources, was according to the custom of that day, bound out to learn the trade of a miller, and was with his master until he was thirteen years of age, at which time life was anything but a continual round of pleasure for him, and possessing a spirit of independence, born with most of the sons of the old Green Mountain State, he ran away and commenced working in a woolen factory at Lowell, Mass., where he remained until the autumn of 1853. His father's family came to that section and bought a farm which gave him a home to fall back on until he reached his majority, at which time he came to McHenry County, Iowa, for the purpose of starting some woolen mill machinery, for a man named DEEDS. He remained there that summer and in the autumn of 1856 went to Buchanan county, Iowa, and ran the old COLBY farm when corn was worth a shilling a bushel and wheat thirty cents. We next find him in Harrison County, Iowa, where he has been a successful business man ever since.

May 27, 1860, marked another important era in this man's life, for it was upon that day that he was united in marriage to Susan B. BONNY, a native of Herkimer County, N. Y., born April 23, 1834. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Isadora ( JENKS).

Mr. and Mrs. STOCKER are the parents of five children, Carrie I., born April 11, 1861; Katie B., November 1, 1862; Helen I., June 28, 1868, Lewis p., deceased, in 1870 and Benjamin T., deceased, born in 1873.

To one who is acquainted with our subject, it would go without saying that he is a man of great force of character, and of decided convictions, which in the matter of politics, lead him to cast his vote with the Republican party, which as he believes, is the best safe guard of American institutions.

He is a member of FULLER Post, No. 38, of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Unlike the man who has slipped noiselessly through life, scarcely being seen, heard or felt, this man's busy life has left its impression and drawn from almost every avenue, of business and society within the radius of the communities, in which he has lived. And be it said to his credit, that he has ever been a good reflection of the puritanic stock, from which he descended; being not only loyal to his country but liberal and broadminded, in the support of all of our public institutions. As one evidence of his popularity among his fellow-citizens, and his political standing, it should be stated that he received the appointment as Postmaster at Loan, under President HARRISON'S administration, and is the present incumbent of such office.

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