JAMES A. STILES
James
A. Stiles, who is now living retired in Allerton, was for
thirty-six years engaged in farming in this county, of which
he became a resident in the spring of 1869. He is one of those
who first responded to the call for troops in ’61, and for
more than three years valiantly served his country on the
battlefields of the south.
The third in order of birth in a family of five, his
natal day was the 12th of December, 1838, and his
birthplace Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. His parents,
William and Henrietta (Woolsey) Stiles, were also natives of
Pennsylvania, where the mother passed away during the early
childhood of our subject.
The father continued to make his home in the Keystone
state until 1858, when he removed to Iowa with his family,
locating in Washington county, and there he resided until his
death, which occurred in 1873.
The boyhood and early youth of James A. Stiles were passed in the state of his nativity. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in Company D, Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for a period of three months. At the expiration of that time he reenlisted for three years, being mustered out with the rank of orderly sergeant at Camp Dennison, Ohio, in August, 1864. He was captured by the enemy in a raid at Rome, Georgia, and was sent to the prison at Belle Island, but was exchanged thirty days later and rejoined his regiment. He participated in all of the battles in which his regiment was engaged, including that of Perryville, Stone River, Atlanta, Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain. Upon receiving his discharge he joined his father in Washington county, remaining there until his marriage in the spring of 1865, following which he located in Johnson county, this state. After a year’s residence there he returned to Washington county, where he remained until the spring of 1869, when he came to Wayne county, purchasing eighty acres of raw land which he cultivated for four years. At the expiration of that time he traded his holding for a hundred and twenty acres in Clay township, this county, which he sold four years later, investing the proceeds in two hundred and forty acres of land in Warren township. He engaged in the further improvement and cultivation of the latter place until 1905, when he sold it and, withdrawing from active life, came to Allerton, where he has since lived retired.
On
the 22d of February, 1865, Mr. Stiles was married to Miss
Mattie M. Irving, a daughter of William Irving of Cadiz, Ohio. She is the eldest
in a family of five and was born on the 18th day of
May, 1846. Of
this marriage there were born the following children: Ada, of Miami,
Oklahoma, who married L. S. DeSilva and has five children;
Susan S., who is in the state hospital at Clarinda, where she
was placed after a severe case of typhoid fever, her mental
condition resulting from the treatment; Belle M., the deceased
wife of Harvey Ferrel, who passed away in 1907, at the age of
thirty-three years, leaving two children; Charles A., who is
married and engaged in ranching and the cattle business in
Colorado; Alva E., who married Harley H. Hillyard and is
residing in this area; Grace, who died at the age of eighteen
years as the result of a railroad wreck; and Alice, who died
when three years of age.
Mr. and Mrs. Stiles are active members of the Presbyterian church of which he has been one of the elders for several years. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order, being a member of the blue lodge of Allerton and the chapter at Corydon. His political allegiance he gives to the republican party and he has always taken an active interest in all local affairs. For many years he was a member of the school board, having performed the duties both of president and secretary, and for three years he served on the board of county supervisors. Mr. Stiles is one of the well known pioneers of Wayne county, where he is held in high regard, having discharged his business affairs in an honorable and upright manner, while as a public official he has manifested the same loyalty and fidelity of purpose which characterized him on the battlefields of the south.