Clendennen Boggs

Clendennen Boggs is now living a retired life in Albia. He has passed the seventy-sixth milestone on life’s journey, and his has been an upright and honorable career, worthy of the respect and veneration which are shown him. He was born in Braxton county, West Virginia, June 18, 1826, his parents L. M. and Nancy Boggs, who were also natives of West Virginia. The father followed farming throughout his entire life, thus providing for his family. With his wife and children he started for the west in the year 1837 and took up his abode in Lee county, Iowa, nine years before the admission of the state into the Union. He secured a tract of land upon which he carried on agricultural pursuits, and in 1843, when the district now comprised within Monroe county was opened for settlement by the white man, he came with his family to this portion of the state and was among the honored pioneers who laid broad and deep the foundation for the present development and progress of the county. He gave his political support to the Whig party in early life and when the Republican party was organized he joined its ranks. In the early fifties he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died in the faith of the Methodist church, of which she was a devout and earnest member. Mr. Boggs long survived her, reaching the advanced age of ninety-three years, his death occurring in 1899. Their children were Clendennen; Henderson; Nathan; Mary Jane, deceased; Louisa; Smith; George M., who has also passed away; Martha Ann; Malissa; and Martin.

Clendennen Boggs spent the first thirteen years of his life in the state of his nativity and then became a resident of Iowa, where he has lived continuously since, and the history of the state from early pioneer times is familiar to him. His educational privileges were limited, but he made the most of his opportunities and as the years have passed he has prospered, gaining a comfortable competence as the result of this earnest and indefatigable labor.

When twenty-three years of age he was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Ramsey, a daughter of John Ramsey, their wedding being celebrated in Monroe county, where he had located about three years previous. Previous to his marriage he had entered one hundred and twenty acres of land from the government, for which he paid the price of one dollar and a quarter per acre. It was as it came from the hands of nature, covered with the native prairie grasses, not a furrow having been turned or an improvement made thereon, but he at once began to break the prairie and in course of time the fields were planted and good harvest followed. Through his energetic efforts and the assistance of his estimable wife he prospered as the years passed by and throughout his active business career continued to engage in farming, but he eventually put aside business cares, and disposing of his land removed to Albia. He there purchased property and has since made his home in this place.

To Mr. and Mrs. Boggs have been born the following children: Henry Clay; William E., deceased; and Newton E. For almost fifty-seven years the subject of this review has resided in Monroe county and for more than a half century he and his wife have traveled life’s journey together. While there have been no exciting chapters in his career, his life history proves how valuable are enterprise and industry in the active affairs of life, for it has been along these lines that Mr. Boggs has acquired the comfortable competence that now enable him to live retired in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil.