STONE, HON. JOHN Y.

     An enumeration of those men of the present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves, and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong, would be incomplete were there failure to make prominent reference to the one whose name initiates this paragraph. He holds prominence as an eminent lawyer and statesman, a man of high scientific and literary attainments, a valiant and patriotic soldier, and as one who occupied a most trying position during the most exciting epoch in the political and military history of this country in which he bore himself with such credit as to gain him the respect of all. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs, and one who has wielded a wide influence. A strong mentality, an invincible courage, a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and a director of opinion. A resident of Glenwood, Mills county, his reputation is not bounded by the confines of the state, for he is known throughout the country in connection with his political and professional labors. He is a western man and the enterprise and determined spirit that enabled so many native sons of Illinois to win national distinction have been manifest in his career.

     Mr. Stone was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, April 23, 1843. On both the paternal and maternal sides he is descended from old southern families, his ancestors being among the early settlers of Virginia and North Carolina. Ex-Governor William M. Stone, of Iowa is authority for the statement that two brothers of the name of Stone came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower, one of whom took up his abode in New England, while the other settled in Virginia, and from the latter Mr. Stone is descended. Tradition tends to prove this statement, as do all the records of the family that are available. The paternal grandparents of Mr. Stone were Spencer and Elizabeth (Hargis) Stone. The former was a native of Virginia and in early life removed to Kentucky, whence he emigrated to Illinois during the pioneer epoch in the history of that state, when William Langford Stone, father of John Y., was but six years of age. In 1853 the grandfather came to Mills county, Iowa, and entered one or more sections of land on Silver Creek from the government or bought it from settlers. In the fall of 1856 he returned in a covered wagon to Illinois to get William Stone's three children, their mother having died in February. His son William could not then leave Illinois, but the grandfather brought the boy and his two sisters, younger than he, the old gentleman and our subject sleeping under the wagon at night, while the bed was made within the wagon for the girls. Jefferson Stone, an uncle of our subject, and his family also accompanied the party. They left their Illinois home on the 1st of September arriving at their destination on Silver creek on the 13th of that month. In December or January following the father of these children also came to them. The trip was a very interesting one to the children. They journeyed westward over the prairies, crossed the rivers, camped out by night and prepared their food by the aid of fires built along the roadside. Spencer Stone developed his wild land into a well cultivated farm and thereon made his home until the close of the Civil war, when he returned to Illinois, spending the evening of his life near Clinton, where he died at the age of eighty years. His father was in the war of 1812 and in the old Indian wars, and the story has come down the line of time that upon one of his hunting expeditions in the woods of Kentucky among hostile Indians, he was conscious of the fact that he was being watched by an Indian and at length discovered the red man in a hollow tree and shot him before the Indian, who was taking aim at him, could fire.

     William Langford Stone, Mr. Stone's father, was a native of Kentucky, born in 1822, and followed agricultural pursuits throughout his entire life, with the exception of a few months passed in Athens, Illinois, during which time he engaged in the coopering business. He married Mary Ellen McLemore, a daughter of the Rev. Young and Nancy (Plumley) McLemore. Her father was an old-time Methodist preacher and school-teacher, and from him John Young received his second name. Both he and his wife were natives of North Carolina. Mrs. Stone died in Athens, Illinois, in February 1856. She was born in or near Knoxville, Tennessee, and in early womanhood gave her hand in marriage to William L. Stone, who was at that time twenty years of age. They became the parents of three children, a son and two daughters. As before stated, the children accompanied their grandfather to Iowa and a few months later the father also took up his abode in Mills county. For two years he rented land from his father, and his son, then usually called by his second name - Young - assisted him in its operation. He then purchased eighty acres of land, making small payments thereon, and from that property the father and son developed a farm and built thereon a log house. About the close of the Civil war William L. Stone moved across to the west side of Silver creek, and bought land there until he finally had a farm of five hundred or more acres, on which he died in August, 1899, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. He was again married in 1857, his second union being with Sophia Patrick, a noble woman, a daughter of one of the later settlers of the community. She was born near Cumberland, Maryland, and she became the mother of three children who are yet living. She was also to her step-children a devoted and loving mother, being possessed of noble qualities, of kindly manner and of genial disposition. She still lives upon the old homestead on Silver creek, near Silver City, in Mills county, and her stepson feels for her the deepest affection, as one from whom he had received a mother's tender care and attention in his youth, and he finds great pleasure in visiting the old homestead and in maintaining the affectionate relations of his boyhood days.

     It is with pleasure that we enter upon the task of compiling a brief life history of Mr. Stone, although it is impossible in the space at our command to do full justice to one whose life activities have been so varied, and whose fields of usefulness have been along so many lines. He has truly won the proud American title of a self-made man. In his boyhood he had the privileges of the common school, but he was early trained to labor. He first entered school when seven years of age, and later was for four years a student at Athens, Illinois. He then accompanied his grandfather to Iowa, where his advantages were limited to the district school. He learned rapidly and soon distanced his classmates, manifesting special aptitude in his studies. After reaching the Hawkeye state he attended school through the winter season, while in the summer months he worked on the home farm in the manner usual for farmer lads of that day. Steadily he worked his way upward step by step, ever making the most of his opportunities for advancement. He eagerly embraced every opportunity for acquiring an education. At the age of seventeen he entered the high school in Glenwood, Iowa, there pursuing the studies through the scholastic years of 1860-61. In the meantime he had devoted all his leisure hours to reading and study and thus became familiar with many books with which many young people of the time were totally unacquainted. In the country school he had studied algebra, geometry and Latin. These were not in the regular curriculum, but the teacher, a Mr. Perry Crosswait, was a well educated man and assisted him in his studies along those lines, unusual in the common schools of the day. It is still told of him on Silver creek that he distanced all competitors in all studies and that he "spelled down" all the schools within a radius of many miles, and even about twenty years ago, when the spelling-school mania took possession of the country, and when there was a grand "spelling" tournament at Glenwood, he met and unhorsed all comers except his partner, Mr. S. V. Proudfit.

      Mr. Stone early formed the desire to enter the legal profession. Before he was eighteen years of age he had secured a copy of Walker's American Law, and he devoted every leisure moment to studying the principles of jurisprudence. However, there was a pause in his legal study and a sudden change in his young life. War clouds gathered, there was a call to arms and his patriotic spirit was aroused. He put aside all personal ambitions and projects for the time being, and on the 9th of October 1861, offered his services to the government, joining Company F., Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, under Captain D. C. Blackman, or Glenwood. Before they left for the field he was appointed a corporal. In his boyhood's happy days he entered most heartily into everything which elicited his sympathies, and so with war. After the organization of the company it remained in Glenwood until the 10th of November, when the troops were driven in wagons - for there were no railroads - to Eddyville, where they took the cars for Keokuk, Iowa. He rapidly mastered military tactics, and notwithstanding his inferior rank was often deputed to act as drillmaster for his company. He quickly acquired a knowledge of all the routine and minutiae of military life and of the army regulations. On the 19th of March, 1862, the Fifteenth, on a drizzly day in the presence of assembled thousands of the people of Keokuk, embarked on a steamer for Benton Barracks, St. Louis. Concerning the embarkation a historian of Iowa troops has said: "Never shall I forget that memorable and sacred moment, when the boat, bearing the precious load of that noble regiment of patriots called the Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers, pushed off amid the huzzas, God-bless-you's and floating handkerchiefs from houses and steeples, as far as the eye could reach. It was, indeed a moment worth a life time. The regiment moved down the majestic river, Mississippi, and the rain continued to patter on the windows of the Gate City as though nothing had happened; the handkerchiefs continued to wave till long after the boat passed beyond the vision, and it was some time before the hospitable city realized that the Fifteenth had gone - many to return with new honors and pleasing fame, others to find 'glory and the grave' on the battle-fields of the south.

      At Benton Barracks the regiment received their new Springfield rifles and took supplies; and a few days later they were ordered to the front, going down the Mississippi and up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers in the steamer Minnehaha, to take part in the great battle of Shiloh. Their boat reached the wharf at four o'clock that morning, the 6th of April, they were off the boat, receiving their ammunition, after which they marched about three miles, and at ten o'clock were in the thickest of the battle with McClellan's division on the right. In this battle the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments fought together. By some error the Fifteenth was taken into conflict across an open field, marching by the right flank instead of moving in line of battle. Being under a heavy musketry and artillery fire the regiment lost severely in going in. The line of battle was formed in the woods after crossing the field, under a terrific rain of lead and iron. Colonel Reid was dangerously and Major Belknap severely wounded. Captain Blackmar and First Lieutenant Goode, of Corporal Stone's company, were severely wounded, and the command of the company devolved upon Lieutenant Throckmorton, of Sidney, Iowa. In two hours the company and regiment lost more than one-third of their numbers. In marching through the underbrush Corporal Stone lost his bayonet, which in some way was pulled out of his scabbard. That part of the field had been the scene of a hard conflict just before, and many dead Union soldiers of some other command were lying around. From the scabbard of one of them having the same kind of gun, Corporal Stone took the bayonet and put it in his own scabbard. Captain James G. Day, then of Company I, and afterward judge for many years of the district and supreme courts of Iowa, was dangerously wounded near Corporal Stone, who with others placed the wounded officer on a horse, whose rider had been killed or wounded and started him to a place of safety. Captain Day had been first lieutenant of Mr. Stone's company and had helped organize it, and lived at Sidney, in Fremont county, Iowa. Afterward Corporal Stone himself was wounded by a spent grapeshot, but not dangerously. It was a bitter and disastrous day to the regiment and never afterward did it have so terrible a conflict, except before Atlanta, on July 22, 1864.

      After the battle of Shiloh the command engaged in slow approaches to Corinth and the siege of that important point. One day while close up to the enemy Corporal Stone was on duty on the advance picket line. He had three men under him at a post a few hundred yards in advance of the main guard, and in front of this post one of these three was placed as a vidette at a rail fence about a hundred yards in advance. When the German lieutenant, who could not speak English plainly, gave Corporal Stone his instructions he was understood to say that if the vidette was fired upon the Corporal should immediately go forward with the other two men to support him. Once during the day several shots were fired at this vidette by some of the enemy across a small field. The corporal promptly took his two men to the front to support his vidette. The firing attracted the attention of Lieutenant Colonel Dewey of the Fifteenth Iowa, who, was the grand officer of the guard for that day, and he came dashing up rapidly on horseback with his escort to see what was the matter. Not finding the corporal and the two men at the post, the colonel with his usual impetuosity began to storm about their deserting their post. But presently he ascertained they were out in front and he sent out after them and demanded of the corporal why he had left the post. On being informed of the instructions the corporal had received, the colonel said: Well, you either misunderstood him or he got things mixed. My orders were that if the vidette was fired upon he should fall back to the post. But since you 'retreated' to the front instead of the rear, I will not look into the matter any further."

       A few days after the battle of Shiloh, the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regiments were organized into a brigade which was placed under the command of General M. M. Crocker, of Iowa, who continued in that capacity till he was placed in command of a division later on. It was known ever after as the "Iowa Brigade," or "Crocker's Brigade," and as thus organized it continued till it was mustered out after the war. The siege of Corinth lasted nearly a month and every hour, day and night, was one of danger and death. Soon after the capture of Corinth, Corporal Stone was promoted to the position of orderly sergeant, and a little later to that of second lieutenant. He was thenceforth in all the marches, skirmishes, sieges and battles of his regiment and brigade. Among these operations were embraced the campaigns and movements of General Grant to clear the enemy from that country, the march to Bolivar, the engagements near there; the return to Corinth, the march to Iuka and return; the battle of Corinth; the march to Grand Junction from Corinth; the maneuvers and skirmishes on the Hatchee, the march to Memphis, Tennessee; the minor actions and marches in southwestern Tennessee and northern Mississippi; the march down through Mississippi toward Vicksburg, until the capture of Holly Springs in the rear, thus compelling Grant to return and change his whole campaign against Vicksburg; the trip by steam-boat from Memphis to points opposite Vicksburg, in preparation for that great campaign.

     (There are several more pages in this 'sketch'. If anyone desires to read the remainder please notify me and I will complete this account. No other genealogical information. cm)

STRAHAN, JAMES M.

     The history of mankind is replete with illustrations of the fact that it is only under pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opposition that the best and strongest in men are brought out and developed. Perhaps the history of no people so forcibly impresses one with this truth as the annuals of our own republic. If anything can inspire the youth of our country to persistent, honest and laudable endeavor, it should be the life record of such men as he of whom we write. The example of the illustrious few of our countrymen who have risen from obscurity to the highest position in the gift of the nation often serves to awe our young men rather than inspire them to emulation, because they reason that only a few can ever attain such eminence; but the history of such men as Mr. Strahan proves conclusively that with a reasonable amount of mental and physical power success is bound eventually to crown the endeavor of those who have the ambition to put forth their best efforts and the will and manliness to persevere therein. Certainly he deserves mention among the most prominent citizens of Mills county, having had a marked influence upon the business life and the substantial development of this portion of the state. His wide acquaintance will render his history one of special interest to many of our readers, and therefore we gladly give it a place in this volume.

       Mr. Strahan is a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred in Putnam county on the 17th of November, 1829. His father, James Strahan, was born in Pennsylvania, August 6, 1781, and emigrated to the Hoosier state during the pioneer epoch of its development. He became identified with the farming interests of Putnam county where he carried on agricultural pursuits until his demise. In June, 1813, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ramsey, also a native of Pennsylvania, born December 16, 1793. They became the parents of seven children. The father died in Putnam county, Indiana, in September, 1835, and the mother long surviving him, passed away in Davis county, Iowa, October 7, 1857.

      The subject of this review spent the first six years of his life in his native state, and then accompanied his parents on their removal to Illinois, being identified with the farming interests of that commonwealth until 1850, when he went to California, remaining for three years of the Pacific coast. He then returned to Illinois, but in 1854 made a second trip to California, taking with him a drove of cattle across the plains. For a year he again remained in the land of gold and then retraced his steps to the Mississippi valley, but this time he located on the west side of the Father of Waters, becoming a resident of Marion county, Iowa, residing there until 1864, when he sold his land and removed to Lucas county, Iowa. In 1866 he removed to Henderson county, Illinois, and in 1869 he returned to Marion county, Iowa. There he resided until 1870, which year witnessed his arrival in Mills county, where for almost a third of a century he has made his home. Since that time he has been a very prominent factor in the business interests which have contributed not alone to his individual prosperity, but have also promoted the general welfare of the community. Entering into partnership with John Evans, they engaged in farming and feeding cattle for the market, carrying on the latter branch of their business on a very extensive scale, selling from two hundred to a thousand head of cattle annually.

      In 1873, in company with others, Mr. Strahan laid out that part of Malvern known as Strahan's addition into lots for building purposes. The town of Strahan, in Deer Creek township, has been named in his honor. His first home in Mills county was an old frame residence but in 1881 he replaced it with one of the finest houses in the county. He first purchased eleven hundred acres of land, but is now the owner of fifteen hundred acres in Mills county and two thousand acres in Wayne county. His operations in land have been very extensive and they bring to him a splendid income. Not only have his stock-raising interests assumed large proportions, but he has also dealt largely in grain, making enormous profits.

      A man of resourceful business ability, his efforts have by no means been confined to one line, but have been extended to many fields of endeavor and have always been attended by success, for he is a man of sound business judgment, rarely if ever at fault in an opinion on business matters. His name figures conspicuously on the pages of the pioneer history of Mills county. He was one of the organizers of the First National Bank, became its first president and has since occupied that position. His splendid executive ability, keen sagacity and strong purpose enabling him to place the institution upon a sound financial basis that has made it one of the leading moneyed institutions of the county. Its first cashier was L. Bentley, and the present cashier is J. J. Wilson who has occupied the position for about ten years. Mr. Strahan is also the president of the First National Bank of Wayne county. He also has a private bank at Malvern, which is conducted under the firm name of Strahan & Christy. The family is a prominent one in connection with financial interests. His son, Frank E. Strahan, is the vice-president of the First National Bank at Wayne, Nebraska, while Otis, another son, is assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Malvern. Few men have a more comprehensive, accurate and reliable knowledge of the banking business than has Mr. Strahan, who is widely recognized as one of the leading financiers of this portion of the west. He is a man of keen discernment and excellent executive ability. He carries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes and his perseverance and determined purpose have been important factors in his splendid success.

      Mr. Strahan has been twice married. On the 3rd of January, 1856, he led to the marriage altar Miss Frances C. Davis, of Henderson county, Illinois. Her father, Abner Davis served in the war of 1812, and the farm upon which he made his home was granted him in recognition of the aid which he rendered his country at that time. Five children, two sons and three daughters, were born of this marriage, namely: Otis A., who married Ida Morris and has two children; Lucy, who is the wife of D. A. Jones and has five children; Luella, who is the wife of June Conger, and they have five children; Francis E., who married Luella Larison, and they have had six children, of whom three are now living; and Rosetta, who is the wife of John Larison. The mother of these children died August 30, 1885, and in 1889 Mr. Strahan was again married, his second union being with Mary W. (Wheeler) Guilford, a daughter of William and Phebe Diana (Makyes) Wheeler. Her paternal grandparents were William R. and Hila (Curtiss) Wheeler, Connecticut people. The latter died in Michigan. The grandfather was born October 16, 1782, and died in Connecticut in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The Wheelers were from Denmark, and a very prominent family there. Mrs. Strahan was one of a family of fourteen children, ten of whom reached mature years, while the mother, who was born in Onondaga county, New York, died at the advanced age of eighty-one years. By her former marriage Mrs. Strahan had four children, of whom two are living: Jessie, now the wife of Alonzo Ring; and Lizzie, the wife of J. E. Cleaver, by whom she has three children. They also lost two daughters: Ella, who became the wife of F. B. Rumsey, of Kansas, and died at the age of twenty-nine years, leaving a daughter. Charta became the wife of M. P. Steele, and died at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving one son, while one child died at the same time, occasioned by a gasoline explosion, March 6, 1899.

      Mr. and Mrs. Strahan are prominent and influential members of the Baptist church in which he has held membership since 1871. He has served as trustee and steward and has contributed liberally to its work, doing all in his power for its advancement. the cause of temperance finds in him a warm friend, and he now affiliates with the Prohibition party, having cast his first vote in support of its candidates when he deposited his ballot for Governor St. John, of Kansas. Prior to that he was a Democrat in his political affiliations. Mr. Strahan is a most progressive and public spirited citizen, and his wife is also noted for her generosity. They contribute very liberally to all worthy enterprises calculated to prove of public benefit, giving their active co-operation to every measure intended for the public good. They are people of the highest worth of character and their lives are in harmony with honorable principles. Regarded as a citizen, Mr. Strahan belongs to that public-spirited, useful and helpful type of men whose ambitions and desires are centered and directed in those channels through which flow the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number, and it is therefore consistent with the purpose and plan of this work that his record be given among those of the representative men of the state.

STROUD, ALEXANDER

     A fitting reward of a well-spent life is an honored retirement from labor, an opportunity to enjoy the fruits of former toil and to spend some years un-harassed by business cares and burdens. This has been vouchsafed to Mr. Stroud, who, after a long connection with agricultural pursuits, has now retired, the accumulations of former decades supplying him with all the comforts and many of the luxuries that go to make life worth living.

     A native of Tennessee he was born in Bedford county in 1830. His father was a native of North Carolina and at an early day emigrated to Tennessee, taking up his residence in Bedford county, where he devoted his time and energies to agricultural pursuits. He had a brother who served as a color-bearer under General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans in the war of 1812, and was the first to plant the stars and stripes upon the breastworks there. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Rebecca Greene, and was a relative of General Greene of Revolutionary fame. She was born in Tennessee and was of Scotch descent, a representative of a family that was prominent in the Revolutionary war. The parents of our subject were married in the mother's native state, and their opposition to slavery and its practices led to their removal to the north. They located first in Illinois, and afterward came to Iowa.

      Alexander Stroud accompanied his parents on their removals and thus became identified with pioneer life in the Hawkeye state. His educational privileges were very limited, for there were no free schools and this necessitated his attendance at subscription schools. The first schoolhouse which he ever saw was built by his parents and their neighbors out of materials which they hauled to the place, therefrom erecting a structure that their children might receive some educational privileges. Mr. Stroud's training at farm labor, however, was not meager, for at a very early day he began work in the fields and followed the plow at the time of the spring planting and garnered the crops during the summer and autumn harvests. He carried on farming in connection with his father unti1879, when he removed to Hillsdale, Center township, Mills county, Iowa, his present home. He has now retired from active business life, but is still a land-owner in this locality. He superintends his investments, but otherwise is engaged in no active labor.

     At the time of the Civil war Mr. Stroud manifested his loyalty to the Union by enlisting in the army at Knoxville, Iowa, on the 15th of August, 1862. He joined the "boys in blue" with Company A, Fortieth Iowa Infantry, under the command of Captain M. V. B. Bennett and Colonel John A. Garrett. With his company he went to Iowa City and direct to "Dixie land," going into camp at Columbus, Kentucky. The regiment was engaged in heavy skirmishing throughout the winter. Their next camp was at Paducah, Kentucky, from which point they went to the support of Grant in the siege of Vicksburg. After the fall of that city Mr. Stroud saw some very hard and trying service in the Yazoo valley country, chasing the rebels through miry swamps and almost impenetrable thickets and canebrakes. He took part in the battle of Jenkins' Ferry, a very severe engagement, and was afterward in service along the Mississippi, where they were constantly subjected to the fire from the sharpshooters and the guns on the gunboats. They made one march of fifty-five miles in twenty-two hours, Mr. Stroud and three of his companions being the only members of the company to stack arms on their arrival at their destination. Subsequently he went with his regiment to Jackson, Mississippi, and Helena, Arkansas, and thence to the Arkansas river, opposite Little Rock, where he experienced some of the very hardest service of his enlistment. The men were ordered across the river in the face of the rebel guns to capture the city, and though the service was a very difficult one it was performed by the brave "boys in blue." Then occurred some very sanguinary battles, the soldiers being mown down like grass. The regiment turned south in Arkansas toward Texas, and the subsequent battles, skirmishes and forced marches in dangerous places and in the darkness of the night were enough to try the metal of the most courageous soldier, but through it all Mr. Stroud never wavered, and when mustered out of service he could claim the honorable distinction of having never lost a day and having ever been found at his post of duty, whether in the thickest of the fight or upon the tented field. His patience, fortitude and valor are worthy of the highest commendations, for no other soldier ever bore such hardships with a more cheerful or courageous spirit. He was mustered out at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, after a service of about three and one-half years.

     Mr. Stroud was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Wade, in Marion county, Iowa, her people having come to the west from Indiana. She is an estimable lady and has been to her husband a faithful wife and helpmate on life's journey. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stroud have been born ten children: Angeline, who became the wife of Dr. Eddy, of Malvern, Iowa, but both are now deceased. Judith, the wife of William McCoy, who resides on a farm near Tabor in Mills county; Priscilla J., the wife of Calvin Goddard, of Pueblo, Colorado; Rebecca, the wife of Dr. Cross of Hillsdale; Clara, who married Daniel Anderson, a farmer of Mills county; Telitha, who wedded S. E. Surface, a resident farmer of Ringgold county, Iowa; Ola, who is the wife of C. S. Day, an agriculturist of Monona, Iowa; Joseph F., the elder son, who was reared as a farmer but is now in business in Hillsdale; Willis C., the younger son, who is a resident of Ottumwa, Iowa; and Sadie, who is deceased.

     In his political views Mr. Stroud is a Republican, having voted the ticket since the organization of the party. He has filled a number of local offices of trust, discharging his duties with promptness and fidelity, thus winning the high commendation of all concerned. He has a wide acquaintance in Mills county and enjoys the respect and esteem of his fellow men by reason of his honorable and upright life.