Biographies
For
Muscatine County Iowa
1889



Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 539

JONATHAN F. GURLEY, a prominent resident of Fruitland Township, residing on section 14, is largely engaged in shipping island products to the North. He was born in Tolland County, Conn., on the 20th of March, 1827, and of his father's family of four children was the oldest. His parents Josephus and Cornelia ( Royce ) Gurley, were also natives of Connecticut.

The origin of the Gurley family is traced back to the seventeenth century. The first of the name of whom we have record was William Gurley, who affirmed that he was stolen from some part of Scotland, probably Colinbury, at the age of fourteen years. The name is still extant there, though spelled in different ways, as " Girly " and " Gurly," while the present branch of the family spell it " Gurley." William Gurley left no record of his parents or relatives. He was born in 1665, and died at the age of twenty-two years, being accidently drowned in the Connecticut River.

Samuel Gurley, son of the said William Gurley, was born May 17, 1687, and died Feb.23, 1760, in the seventy-third year of his age. He married Experience Rust, of Northampton, Conn., who died May 16, 1796, in the eighty-eighth year of her age. They were the parents of ten children, the sons being Jonathan and Samuel.

Jonathan Gurley was born April 2, 1715, and died March 15, 1746. He married Hannah Baker, in 1737, by whom he had eight children : William, Jacob Baker, Jonathan, Daniel, Ebenezer, Hannah, Esther, and Titus. Hannah, his wife died in 1796, in the eighty-eighth year of her age.

Jonathan, a son of Jonathan and Hannah Gurley, was born April 10, 1744, and died Nov. 23, 1814. He married Jerusha Bennett in 1764. She died in June, 1835, in the ninety-first year of her age. They had a large family of children : Ephraim, Roger, Jonathan, Fluvel, Ann, Jerusha, Esther, Olive, Rebecca, and Harriet.

Capt. Roger Gurley, the fifth in line of descent, was born Sept. 13, 1766, and died at Willimantic, Conn., Oct. 27, 1836, in the seventy-first year of his age ; he received his title of Captain in the War of 1812. Roger Gurley and Permelia Bicknell, daughter of Moses Bicknell, were married, and had born to them the following children : Jonathan, Josephus, Moses Bicknell ; Harrison, who is now living at New Hampton, Iowa, being one of the first settlers in Chickasaw County ; Permelia, Almira, Arvella, Sally, Harriet, Julia, and Louisa. Mrs. Gurley died in February, 1842.

Josephus, son of Capt.Roger and Permelia Gurley, was born in Mansfield, Conn., March 28, 1796, and there died Jan.25, 1837. In 1821 he married Dorothy Farwell, daughter of Thomas Farwell, of Mansfield, Conn., by whom he had one son and one daughter, twins, born March 8, 1823. Six days after their birth their mother died. For his second wife Josephus Gurley married Cornelia Royce, Feb.22, 1826. She was born June 19, 1809, and was the daughter of James Royce, Jr., of Mansfield, Conn. They had one son and three daughters : Jonathan Fields, Frances Bicknell, Julia Miranda and Eunice. About 1828 the family moved to Morrisville N.Y., where Mr. Gurley carried on the comb manufacturing business in company with his brother Jonathan for about eight years, when, on account of failing health, he sold out and returned to Mansfield, where he died Jan. 25, 1837, at a settlement called Gurleyville, Tolland Co., Conn., and was buried in the old North Mansfield Cemetery, where many of the descendents of the Gurley family are interred. Mrs. Cornelia Gurley, who is yet living, is a resident of Morrisville, and is in the seventy-ninth year of her age.

Our subject received his education in the public schools, and afterward worked at silk manufacturing for several years. In 1851-52 he erected a silk manufactory, at Morrisville, N. Y., which he operated for some time. He was married in Cincinnatus, Cortland Co., N.Y., of the 25th of February, 1852, becoming the husband of Eliza C. Kingman, who was born in New York in 1833, and is a daughter of Charles and Nancy ( Root ) Kingman, who were among the pioneer settlers of Cortland and Chenango Counties, N. Y. Her father was born March 4, 1800, and her mother Oct. 10, 1803. The father engaged in merchandising, and also carried on farming for a time, and in 1857, moved to the West, locating in Taylor's Falls, Minn., where he erected a mill, and engaged in lumbering for two years. Thence he moved to Matoon, Ill., where he engaged in general merchandising until his death, from pneumonia, which occurred on the 28th of January, 1864, at the age of sixty-five years. Mrs. Kingman died of asthma, June 25, 1868,at the age of sixty-six years. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Gurley, John and Isabella Kingman, were natives of New York. The first Kingman, so far as can be ascertained, was Henry Kingman, who came to this country from Wales in 1635, and settled in Weymouth, Mass. Mitchell Kingman, a descendent of Henry, was born in Westerfield, Mass., in 1744. He was Captain of a company in the Revolutionary War, and died at Cincinnatus, N.Y., in 1819. John Kingman was born in Westerfield, N. Y., and was married on the 12th of February, 1795, and they moved to Cincinnatus, N. Y. He was a Recruiting Colonel in the War of 1812, raised three companies and gave them to Col. Hathaway. He died in 1858.

Mrs. Gurley's maternal grandfather, Daniel Root, was born Nov.9, 1775, and died Dec.12, 1847, at the age of seventy-two years of age. He entered the service as a Captain in the War of 1812, and was promoted Colonel for bravery at the battle of Lundy's Lane. It was his company that killed Gen. Brock, in whose memory a monument was erected over his grave at Queenstown, Canada. Col. Root was taken prisoner, and after several months confinement was exchanged for some British officers. Chenango County honored him with a seat in the Legislature.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Gurley remained in New York until 1857, when he sold his silk manufactory, and removed to Taylor Falls, Minn., where he engaged in the milling and lumbering business with Charles Kingman, his father-in-law. The terrible panic of 1857, followed by the hard times of 1858, 1859, and 1860, was disastrous to the firn and they lost all they invested in the enterprise. Mr. Gurley then determined to remove from the Territory, and in 1860 located at Keithsburg, Ill., where he started a lumberyard, and also engaged in buying and shipping grain and country produce. In 1860-61 money was very scarce, and what little was in circulation was almost worthless, and was known as "red-dog" and " wild-cat." Produce of all kinds was low in price, wheat bringing but thirty cents per bushel, corn ten cents, rye fifteen cents, oats ten cents, dressed pork $2 per 100 pounds, eggs 3 cents per dozen. Much of the produce had to be hauled twenty-five miles to the river to find a market.

In 1864 our subject moved to Burlington, Iowa, where he became agent for the Singer sewing-machine, carrying a full line of machine supplies. In 1869 he traded property in Minnesota for unimproved land on the island, the farm being 144 acres in extent, 100 acres of which he planted in fruit, but as this was not a paying investment he turned his attention to the raising of sweet potatoes, watermelons, and other garden produce especially adapted to the soil. He was one of the first shippers of Muscatine Island, and there raised the first large crop of sweet potatoes. In 1872 he bought nearly all the sweet potatoes that had been raised on the island, shipping them to St. Paul and other places north, since which time he has built up an extensive trade. He ships his produce in nearly every town along the Mississippi north of Muscatine, to and including St. Paul and Minneapolis. His energy, enterprise and business ability have made this line of work a success, and he well deserves a liberal share of the public patronage. He formerly took an active part in political affairs, voting with the Anti-Monopolists, and was nominated by that party to the legislature, polling a strong vote. Socially, he was a member of the I.O.O.F.in New York.

To our subject and his wife have been born two children : Charles K., who was born in Morrisville,N. Y., on the 21st of October, 1857, married Lucy E. Pease, in Muscatine, Nov. 13, 1878. They have two daughters, Gertrude and Zella. The family reside in the southern limits of Muscatine, where Charles K. is engaged in market-gardening, and the shipping of vegetables. Ellen C. was born in Muscatine, Iowa, Jan. 17, 1875, and is still at home with her parents. Mrs. Gurley and children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their home is pleasantly situated about one mile south of the city limits, on the bank of the river, and is known as Riverside Fruit Farm. Though called away from home a great part of the time looking after his business affairs, Mr. Gurley takes great interest in the welfare of his adopted county, and does all in his power to aid in the promotion of any enterprise for the public good.


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