Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 915
AUSTIN LOWREY

Inflexible honesty, keen business perception, and a good stock of common sense, have given Austin LOWREY high rank in social circles of his locality, and he is welcome in any home in his neighborhood. Intelligent, appreciative, and altogether honorable, Mr. LOWREY is the kind of man who is highly respected by every one.

Austin LOWREY was born on April 8, 1869, in Douglas township, Harrison county, Iowa, one and one-half miles northwest of his present home. He was a son of John B. and Helen M. (DUEL) LOWREY, who were natives of Stl Lawrence and Saratoga counties, New York, respectively. Mr. LOWREY is one of two children, the other being Viola M. She married Charles P. Davis and has seven children, two girls and five boys, Ralph, Hazel, Robert, Frank, Leslie, Hugh and Helen.

John LOWREY, the father of Austin, was born on March 27, 1841, and his wife was born on May 16, 1842. He was the son of John and Nancy (Wilder) LOWREY, the former of whom was a Methodist Evangelical minister, as was his son. John LOWREY, Sr., was born in the northern part of Ireland and came to the United States when he was but two years old, in he early part of the year 1800. His wife, Nancy Wilder, was of English descent, but was born in Vermont. He was a charter member of the Wesleyan Methodist organization.

John LOWREY, Jr., was a Methodist Evangelical minister and during the Civil War was sent south to minister to the negroes and colored soldiers. He was bitterly opposed by the white residents of the south and several attempts were made to shoot him. After the war, in 1865, he came west, stopping one year in Fremont county, Iowa, and in 1866, when the railroad was being built, came to Harrison county and located near the place where Woodbine now stands. He first bought forty acres of land, paying five dollars an acre for it. Soon after, he traded his holdings for a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract, added, from time to time, to his land holdings until at one time he owned four hundred and forty-six acres. John LOWREY sold out his farm at this place in December, 1901, and in March, 1902, he moved to Woodbine, where he had previously purchased a home in the western part of the town, the lot containing two and one-half acres. John LOWREY has since made his home in Woodbine, his business being the buying and selling of Harrison county land.

After coming to Harrison county, John LOWREY had charge of the Congregational society until the town of Dunlap was founded. The first meeting place of the church was in a school house, and after he stopped preaching, Mr. LOWREY was a deacon of the church for a number of years.

Austin LOWREY attended the public schools of Woodbine and later the Wesleyan Normal College, of Shenandoah, Iowa, and stayed home until after his marriage, as he was the only boy and thought it was his duty to help manage his father's farm. John LOWREY bought for his son, Austin, one hundred and twenty acres in 1890, on which Austin now lives. Austin later purchased forty acres west of his present farm, but sold it in 1912, and bought one hundred acres in section 4, of Douglas township.

Making a specialty of feeding cattle and hogs, Mr. LOWREY, every year, ships about eight carloads of stock; he also sells considerable stock, locally. He built the house in which he now lives in 1910. It contains eight rooms and is thoroughly modern in every particular, being equipped with electric lights, waterworks, furnace, hot and cold water and bath. The barns, cattle sheds and other outbuildings are of excellent quality and indicate industry and prosperity.

Mr. LOWREY married Carrie E. BAKER on July 28, 1896, who was born in Woodbine, the daughter of Elwain and Nettie (CHAFFEE) Baker, the former of whom was a native of New York and the latter a native of Vermont. To Mr. LOWREY and his wife six children have been born, all of whom are boys. John B., born on May 27, 1897; Elwain B., born on September 7, 1899; Austin B., born on August 21, 1901; F. L. Lyman, born on March 1, 1903; Donald F., born on October 14, 1907, and Woodrow Wilson, born on May 10, 1913. All of these children make their home with their parents.

Mrs. LOWREY's maternal grandmother was a member of the Fairbanks family, the same family from which Vice-President Fairbanks and the Fairbanks Seal families are descended. The Fairbanks homestead is the oldest in the United States and is now owned by the Fairbanks descendants. It is known as �Dedham� and is ten miles from Boston. A reunion is held there each June.

Mrs. LOWREY's father was born twenty miles east of Buffalo, New York. Mr. Baker also comes from a historic family, one of his ancestors being a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Austin LOWREY is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political affiliations are with the Republican party and he has, at all times, taken an active interest in local politics, having been at different times, township trustee, township clerk and, for many years, has been justice of the peace. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church and they taken an active interest in the welfare, growth and activities of the church, as they have been members ever since their youth.

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