One of the early pioneer settlers who endured the hardships and privations that fell to the lot of those who adopted Iowa Territory as their future home, and one who aided in making Scott County one of the leading agricultural sections of the State, was the gentleman whose pame heads this sketch.
William Du Bois was born January 14, 1817, in Salem County, New Jersey. His parents were Samuel and Kesiah (Dickinson) Du Bois, who were of French origin. The grandfather of our subject was a captain in the Revolutionary War, and his name was also William. The subject of our sketch was reared on a farm and received a common school education. In 1837 he moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, but only remained there one year. In the spring of 1838 he came to Scott County and settled in Pleasant Valley Township, where he engaged in farming in the summer and chopping cord wood in the winter, paying for his first eighty acres of land in part by digging ditches to drain the lands of other pioneers who were in more affluent circumstances. When he first settled in Iowa there were but three houses between Jackson County and Pleasant Valley occupied by white settlers, though Indians were numerous there in those days.
Mr. Du Bois was united in marriage in October of 1844 to Miss Catherine Hicks, daughter of John Hicks, a native of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Du Bois was born in Greene County, Ohio, June 22, 1820. Their union was blessed with a family of fourteen children, eleven of whom grew up and married as follows: Mary M. married John Morgan, Theodore married Miss Evaline Myers, Ann E. married D. S. Miller, Martha E. married G. W. Payton, Sarah C. (now deceased) married Norman Wood, William M. married Sarah Baxter, Henry R. married Emma Gay, Minerva A. married James Baxter, Clarasa A. married John Underwood, Emma A. married George Olinger, Ella J. married Wilbur Conrod.
Mr. Du Bois was never an office-seeker, but held some minor offices in his Township, and in 1842-43 he was a doorkeeper in the Territorial Legislature, which met in Iowa City, then the capital of the Territory. He often traveled on horseback from his home in Pleasant Valley to Iowa City in one day, a distance of seventy-five miles. In political matters during his early life he was an old-line Whig. After that he was a Republican for a time, and then joined the Democratic party, with which he affiliated to the end of his life. Mr. Du Bois lived to see many changes for the better in his adopted County, and was honored and respected by all who knew him . He passed away April 20, 1895, leaving a widow and a large family of children and grandchildren to mourn his loss.
October 13, 1894, they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary, which was a most interesting event, a large number of their descendants and friends being present to celebrate the occasion.
Such is the history of one of the pioneer citizens of Scott County, of whom, after a few years, none will be left to tell around the fireside stories of the early days in Iowa. Peace and rest to these grand old men.
BIOGRAPHIES