Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in Jefferson County, 1931 John A. Huglin

"The Fairfield Daily Ledger"
Monday, August 24, 1931
Front Page

Who's Who In Jefferson County
By Herbert F. McDougal

JOHN A. HUGLIN

The present grasshopper scare brings back old times for John A. Huglin, for when he was a child of 4½ years of age, he was captured by Indians, out in Nebraska, and held for several days. His diet was grasshopper soup. The family had gone to Greenwood, Nebraska, from Geneseo, Illinois, where John was born September 14, 1879, but the grasshoppers, floods and Indians were too much for them, so hey made their way, broken and destitute, back to Iowa and squatted on a Des Moines river claim amidst the ponds and occupied country of Boone county. There were no laid-out roads and their nearest trading point was the little village of Dayton in Webster county. They made their occasional trips there afoot, on horseback, or in a lumber wagon.

John was content to live upon these uncharted prairies, which was well enough, as there was no alternative. He was seven years of age when the family moved to Iowa, and he started to work on the farm at once. He was especially fond of horses and became a proficient rider and an expert at breaking western bronchos (sic). during the summers he farmed, rode, tamed horses and herded cattle. In winter he trapped mink and muksrats, and took an active part in school debates, which then were popular. He would attend three or four of these debates a week, participating in the hot discussions of the questions of the day. These debates were attended by great crowds, most of the men coming on horseback. Even Doliver and Kenyon were sometimes attracted to them.

His average earning for fourteen years was 25 cents a day and by the time he was twenty-one he had had only eighteen months of schooling. Determined to get more education, he worked his way into the Western Normal school at Shenandoah and was able to hold out financially for six months before he had to go back to the farm to recoup his finances. A year later he entered college at Rock Island where he took an active interest in sports and was right guard on the football team for four years. He was graduated a year ahead of his class as a result of diligent application to his studies.

After that he entered the Lake Forest College law school in Chicago, selling books during the day and attending classes at night. He spent two years there and then went to Drake, where he was graduated in law. He was admitted to practice by the supreme court in May, 1898, and in September came to Fairfield and began to practice, the firm being Coykendall & Huglin. Two years later the partnership was dissolved, and since that time Mr. Huglin has practiced alone.

He came to Jefferson county a total stranger, but such was his activity in public affairs, that he soon built up an extensive acquaintance. He took part in the old time political campaigns, attended Sunday school conventions, was active in church work. During the World War he spent a third of his time in loan drives and Red Cross work.

Mr. Huglin is a Presbyterian and the teacher of the younger men's Bible class. For twenty years he has been a member of the Chautauqua board, for five years its president. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and an Odd Fellow and one of the most active spirits in these organizations.

His father was born in Rexby, England, and came to the United States in 1858. He enlisted in the Union army at the outbreak of the Civil War and served four years in an Ohio regiment. John is the oldest of eight children, and carried on the military tradition by his membership in Company M., I. N. G., for six years. He married Miss Clara Lenore Porter, June 28, 1905. They have three sons, Harold, the oldest is a graduate of West Point and is now in the Army air service. Harvey, the second, is now in West Point, and Henry, the youngest, is in high school. The Huglins have an attractive suburban home just east of the city.