gomery County, Ind., at an early day and followed the trade of contractor and builder there. He was a soldier in the Mexican War. His father was Isaac C. Martin. William D. Martin was one of the following children: James (of Topeka, Kas.), Polly (now Mrs. Ephraim Dewey, of Oregon) and Josephine (now Mrs. Thomas Goble, of Jones County, Ill. ). He was reared and educated in Indiana, and in 1862 enlisted in the Twentieth Indiana Battery, with which he served until the close of the war. He was in the siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville, and was in numerous skirmishes, but never received a wound. He was sick with lung fever at Nashville, and was in the hospital for nine months. Returning to Indiana after the war, he there remained until the winter of 1867, when he moved to Story County, Iowa. He has followed agricultural pursuits up to the present time, and is the owner of 120 acres of well-improved land, on which he has excellent buildings, etc. As a man of industry and enterprise he has few superiors. Mr. Martin was married in 1879 to Mrs. Nancy P. Schoonover, widow of George Schoonover, who was one of the first settlers in this county. Mr. Schoonover served as recorder two terms, and also edited a county paper for some time. Mrs. Martin became the mother of two children by her first marriage, John H. and Edwin, and one child by her union to Mr. Martin, Ernest W. John H. Schoonover was educated in the Business College at Des Moines, and now is president of the Queen City Business College at Hastings, Neb. Edwin Schoonover is a farmer of Story County, Iowa. Mr. Martin is a member of the New Albany Township Stock Improvement Co., which was organized in March, 1889, and is also a member of J. B. Steadman Post No. 238, at Colo. He is giving special attention at the present time to the breeding of Poland-China hogs. He and Mrs. Martin are members of the United Brethren Church.
J. Francis Martin, attorney at law, of Nevada, Iowa. Socially, and as a painstaking and zealous lawyer, we find none whose record in point of excellence excels that of Mr. Martin, who for the past thirteen years has been one of the leading members of the Story County bar. He was born in a log cabin in Greenville Township, Bureau County, Ill., December 25, 1852, a son of Charles and Victoria (Lovitt) Martin, the former born in Oneida County, N. Y., in October, 1826, the latter being also born there. Charles Martin followed the occupation of a merchant in his early life, but upon his removal to Bureau County, in 1842, he turned his attention to stock-raising, and eventually became the owner of a large and valuable stock-farm in that county. His ancestors originally came from Ballingarry, Ireland, or near that parish, but the mother's father, Joseph Lovitt, was a native Frenchman. Mrs. Martin was a refined and intelligent Christian lady, a faithful wife and mother, and her death, which occurred at Wyanet, in Bureau County, Ill., in 1867, was lamented by many besides her own immediate family. J. Francis Martin received a good education in the public schools of Bureau County, and after attaining a suitable age he began teaching school, an occupation he continued for three years, after which he entered college at Wheaton, Ill., in which institution he remained three years. Having made up his mind to make law his profession through life, he entered a law office in the city of Chicago, in 1874, remaining two years, at the end of which time he entered the law department of the Iowa State University, at Iowa City, and graduated in 1877. Immediately afterward he came to Nevada, Story County, where he opened a law office, and has been a practitioner and resident of this county ever since. He is a