D. C. Kenworthy

page 541

The subject of this sketch is a man who has been prominent in many of the affairs of life, has fought on the battlefields of the south in defense of the Union, has been a leading farmer of the county for nearly half a century and has taken an active part in public, social and religious matters of the community. His grandfather was Elisha Kenworthy and was a native of Pennsylvania; he and his wife Sarah both died in Indiana. Thomas Kenworthy, the father of D.C. Kenworthy, was born in Ohio, where he was reared on a farm. In 1844 he went to Miami county, Indiana, and until 1853 ran a grist and saw mill.

Then coming to Monroe county, Iowa, he bought a farm near where the subject of this sketch now lives; selling this place a few years later he removed to Ringgold county, but soon sold the farm he had acquired there to the Burlington railroad, and then went to Oregon, where he died at the age of eighty-five. He was successful medical practitioner in Iowa for a number of years and was a man of sterling traits of character. He lived during the heat of the slavery strife and was an uncompromising abolitionist Republican and was an active supporter of John C. Freemont in the first campaign of that party; he was also a friend of Colonel Jim Lane of Kansas. He was a Methodist in religion. He was married in Montgomery county, Indiana, to Sarah Beesley, a native of Pennsylvania; she was the mother of twelve children: Sirena, Irnada, Delitha, Louisa, Mary, Saphrona, Martha, David C., and four others. Thomas Kenworthy’s second wife was Minerva Jackson, by whom he had seven children; she died in Oregon.

David C. Kenworthy was born in Crawfordsville, Montgomery county, Indiana, July 13, 1839, and was fourteen years old when he came to Monroe county, in November, 1853, and here he was reared and completed his education in the common schools. When he was twenty-two years old he enlisted, in July, 1861, in Company H, First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, under Colonel F. Warren and Captain D. Anderson. He saw much active service in the campaign in Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi; he was in the engagements with General Price’s army, also Quantrell’s raiders and Bill Anderson’s troopers. He was in the battle at Jackson, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas; Camden, Missouri; and he started to assist General Banks in the Red River expedition, but his regiment failed to reach him in time; they then went on a forced march up the Saline river to meet General Price and after crossing on pontoon bridges engaged in a hard fight which lasted all day; he took part in the battle of the Poison Springs on the Little Missouri and then received a veteran’s furlough for thirty days. He was stationed at Mexico and St. Joseph, Missouri, and fought bushwhackers all over the state; he was sent to Jefferson City to support the Union forces against Price and received his final discharge in November, 1865, returning home with a most enviable war record.

While on his veteran’s furlough Mr. Kenworthy was married, May 29, 1864, to Alice Harris, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1845, being the daughter of R.B. Harris, a native of New York, and of Mary Bains, a native of Wales. Morris Bains, the father of the latter, is now one hundred years old and was born in Wales, where he married Alice Jones; in 1835 they came to Delaware county, Ohio, and in 1856 came to Monroe county; they had two children, Edward, deceased, and Mrs. Harris; Mr. Bains has eight great-great-grandchildren, thirty-six great-grandchildren, and eighteen grandchildren, and he is known and respected as one of the patriarchs of the county. R.B. Harris and wife had fourteen children: William, who was a soldier in the Civil war in the First Iowa Cavalry and died while in the service; Alice, who became Mrs. Kenworthy; Zilia, deceased; Morris; Albert; Edward, deceased; Clinton, deceased; Emily McGinnis, living in this county; Mary; Losinia, the wife of the Rev. William Potter, of the Methodist church at Ainsworth, Iowa; Hattie; and three others. The father of these children passed away at the age of eighty and the mother at the age of seventy-seven, the former being a member of the Republican party, and both devoted members of the Methodist church.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenworthy are the parents of five children: Florence, the wife of Henry Payne, of Albia; Mattie R. Barnhill, of Franklin township, a former teacher of the county; Arthur, who married Myra Searcy, of this county; Hattie, of Albia; and Maud Richardson, residing in this county.

Mr. Kenworthy lives on a three hundred acre farm, known as the old George Town farm. He takes an active interest in the success of the Republican party and is a member of the central committee of the township, of which he has been chairman for years; he is a leading member of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Albia; and he has been steward of the Methodist church for many years and one of its most liberal supporters. Throughout his long residence in the county he has proved himself a man of no mean ability, and is held in high regard.