Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 717
ALLEN STOKER

Allen STOKER, who is a resident of section 27, Union Township, came to Harrison County in February 1869, and purchased a part of his present homestead, and then returned to Pottawattamie County, returning the following year to remain, and began breaking up the wild sod. He lived with his brother-in-law, George SPEARS, for about two years. The township at that time was very thinly settled, there not being over one hundred and fifty inhabitants, and their chief market was Logan.

To inform the reader concerning our subject's earlier years, his marriage, etc., it should be stated that he was born December 29, 1844, in Hancock County, Ill., and is the son of Ellar and Margaret (JUDD) STOKER.

The father was a native of the Buckeye State, and came to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, settling near Council Bluffs, in June 1846, where he died July 19, 1855, always following farming. His wife was born in Indiana. They were the parents of eight children, of whom seven still survive, Mr. STOKER being the third child. He attended the district school in Pottawattamie County, acquiring a fair business education. His father died when he was about eleven years of age, but, being a faithful son, he lingered around the home hearth-stone until he had reached his majority, and then worked the old homestead two years, teaching school winters. Upon leaving home his mother gave him a team of horses and a wagon and the sum of $100 in money. And with this small beginning he started forth in life to take his rank among men as the architect of his own fortune, and by good business habits and much hard labor he is now surrounded with a comfortable home, and is possessor of three hundred and ninety-five acres of land in Union Township, of which two hundred are under the plow, and the balance pasture and meadow land. He usually keeps seventy-five head of cattle, fourteen horses, and fifty swine. He built his present house in 1879, the upright of which is 16x24 feet and two stories high, to which an addition fourteen feet square and one story high has been added. His barn was erected in 1883, and is 36x42 feet, with twenty-foot posts. The whole premises show evidences of good management and our subject is looked upon as one of the intelligent agriculturists of the country.

He was united in marriage October 31, 1876, to Sarah E. WHITINGER, daughter of Jasen and Mary J. (HOWARD) WHITINGER, who emigrated to the county in 1857 or 1858. Her father was born in Indiana August 18, 1835, and came to Dallas County, Iowa in 1853. He was married when twenty-four years of age. His wife was born in Illinois March 7, 1842, and raised a family of six children, of whom Mrs. STOKER, born February 24, 1859, is the eldest. Her people are living in Idaho, to which State they went in 1854. Mr. and Mrs. STOKER are the parents of seven children, who were born in the following order:--The first born died in infancy; Ada M., October 15, 1877; Margaret J., October 3, 1879; Nellie L., January 17, 1882; Marvin C., September 29, 1884, died December 14, 1890; Edith, born June 19, 1889; Lloyd A., May 1, 1889.

Politically, Mr. STOKER is identified with the Republican party.

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