Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 467

GEORGE ASKAM, is a leading farmer of Goshen Township, residing on section 29. He was born on the 15th day of March, 1829, in Yorkshire, England, of which country his parents, Thomas and Anna Askam, were also natives. The father was a farmer by occupation, and his death occurred in England, April 30, 1875, at the ripe old age of eighty-one years. Mrs. Askam was called to her final home in 1862, when sixty seven years of age.

George was reared to farm life, and grew to manhood upon his father's farm. In the county of his birth he was united in marriage, in 1854, with Anna Hepplestone, who was born in Yorkshire, and is a daughter of James and Helen Hepplestone. Both of her parents are now deceased, the mother having been called to her final home when Mrs. Askam was a little child. For about three years the young couple remained residents of England, when, in 1857, they embarked in a sailing-vessel for America, reaching the harbor of New York after a pleasant voyage of forty-five days. Coming directly to Muscatine County, they crossed the Mississippi September 20, and since that date have been residents of Goshen Township. Four children have been born to this worthy couple, three of whom are yet living: Anna, yet at home; James who is married, and resides in Wapsinonoc Township; and Elizabeth, now Mrs. Richard Shannon, of Goshen Township.

In 1874 Mr. Askam purchased eighty acres of improved land, and some years later bought another tract of eighty acres, making in all 160 acres, which comprises one of the best farms in the township. It is now under a high state of cultivation, many useful and ornamental improvements have been made, and it is pleasantly situated only about four miles from West Liberty. Everything about the place denotes the owner to be a man of thrift and enterprise, and he is regarded as one of the prominent farmers of Muscatine County. Politically, he is a supporter of the Democratic party, and he and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.


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