Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 401
ALPHEUS M. PERSONS, a leading farmer residing on the southwest quarter of section 11, Wilton Township, was born in Windham Co., Vt., on the 17th day of May, 1831. His father Alpheus Persons, Sr., died in April, 1843, when our subject was but twelve years of age, he being accidently killed by the falling of a tree. By this misfortune the wife was left with five children, four of whom were below the age of eighteen years, and upon her devolved the care of the family. The children were thus compelled to care for themselves at an early age. They are yet living with the exception of the youngest. Calista is a resident of Newton, Jasper Co., Iowa ; Wallace is living in Rutland County, Vt.; Fanny makes her home in Jasper Co., Iowa ; Alpheus M., of this sketch and Archibald. The latter enlisted Aug. 27, 1861, in the 5th Vermont Infantry, and was wounded at the battle of Lee's Mills, Vt., in April 1862. He was transferred to the Invalid Corps, Sept. 1, 1863, where he served til the close of the war. He escaped death in the army to be killed by accident later in life. He was a resident of Readsboro, Vt., at the time of his death, which occurred July 28, 1873. From thirteen to eighteen years of age our subject was engaged the greater part of his time in working on a farm, but later was employed for the two years immediately preceeding his emigration to the West in a pail and tub factory in Massachusetts. On the 25th day of September, 1856, he arrived in Muscatine County, where for a number of years he followed the trade of carpentering, and in 1867 settled on a farm which he purchased in Farmington Township, Cedar County, about three miles north of Durant. The land constituting that farm was in an unimproved state, and for two years he continued its cultivation, after which he removed to Fulton Township, Muscatine County, and bought a farm, upon which he made his home until March, 1884, when he removed to his present home on section 11, Wilton Township. He then bought 160 acres of land, which was first settled by J. H. Pingrey, and was the Pingrey homestead for many years.

On the 6th day of September, 1860, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Mary Flavilla Deming, their union being celebrated in Fulton Township. The lady was born in Illinois, Jan. 16, 1842, and is a daughter of George Deming, one of the early settlers of Muscatine County. By their union two children have been born :Leona, now the wife of Oakley Norton, a son of C. W. Norton, of Wilton ; and Edna Ruth, who was born March 22, 1880. Our subject has one of the most pleasant homes in Wilton Township, and his land is under a high state of cultivation. In early life he supported the Whig party, casting his first Presidential vote for Gen. Scott in 1852, but since the organization of the Republican party has been one of its firm advocates. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church at Durant, and in the work of that denomination take an active interest. Both have passed the greater part of their lives in Muscatine County, and are numbered among its esteemed and respected citizens.

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