Justin Ayres (1808 - 1886)

AYRES, CLARK, HAWKINS, RICE, KIMBALL

Posted By: Barry Mateer (email)
Date: 3/17/2024 at 16:05:47

December 20, 1886
Osceola Weekly Sentinel
Osceola, Iowa

Justin Ayres dropped dead on Sunday evening, December 26th, while doing the evening work about his barn. Some of his family noticing him, went to him, but life was extinct. Although his health had not been rugged for awhile, his death was very unexpected at this time. The news quickly spread through the community producing a profound impression of surprise and of regret for the loss of an old respected citizen.

Mr. Ayres came to Clarke County in 1868 and settled on the farm where he has since lived, about nine miles from Osceola and where he has made farming a very successful business. He has been a farmer most of his life, except two years spent in duties as foreman in the construction of the Pennsylvania canal, and some eight years in the lumber business in Wisconsin.

He was born in Windsor county, Vermont, on the 29th of March, 1808, consequently he was in his seventy-ninth year when he died. He married Miss Angeline Clarke, in Ohio, May, 1835, and she died in 1866. His second wife died in 1883. Five children are living of the first marriage, H.C. Ayres, of Vermillion, Dakota; Mrs. Frances Kimball and Mrs. Grace Rice at Ouray, Colorado, Mr. C.T. and Miss Alma Ayres, of this county.

Mr. Ayres was descended from a family which traces its members back as far as 1648 in this country. They were a vigorous race, and he resembled them mentally and physically. He was a very independent thinker, a man of great intelligence gathered from much reading, and of unusual natural intellect. During the last few years he has written a great deal for the press. He was a man of the strictest integrity, and lived a life approved of his fellow men. He was a strong advocate of temperance, an anti-slavery man in the days when it was an issue, and a champion, fo all causes that he deemed essential to reforms.

His death removes a valued citizen from the county.

The funeral took place on Wednesday at 11 o’clock, the services being conducted at the house by Rev. Charles Dunlap. By request of the family, the grave was made on the farm. Homer C. Ayres arrived on Tuesday to be present at the funeral.

January 5, 1887
The Summit County Beacon
Akron, Ohio

Justin Ayres, a former resident of Summit County, died suddenly at his home in Clarke County, Iowa, Dec. 26, 1886. He had been in usual good health and stepped to the barn to feed his cows. After having been gone about the usual length of time for such work, his daughter, who was in the habit of looking after him attentively, stepped out to see if all was right and found lying dead on the floor. He had been dead but a few minutes. Heart disease is the supposed cause of death.

The deceased was born in Windsor, County, Vermont, March 29, 1808; removed to Old Portage in 1815 with his father’s family. They soon settled upon land known for 50 years as “Ayres’s Flats” four miles west of Akron. He left the Flats about 1870 and settled in Clarke County.

He has always been known as a man of good habits and morals and of good intellectual endowments. Two sons and three daughters survive him.

1886 History of Clarke County Iowa – Biographical Sketches

Justin Ayres’ father, Thomas, removed from Boston to Windsor County, Vermont, where he bought a farm. After selling the farm he removed in 1815 to Summit County, Ohio, then Portage County, with family, among which was five sons – John, Stephen, Thomas, Justin and Orrin. Justin, the only one of the five now living – the others having all died in California – was born in Windsor County, Vermont, March 29, 1808. His mother, Polly (Hawkins)Ayres, was a native of Connecticut. Justin was raised to to manhood on his father’s farm, then in the wilderness of Northern Ohio. He remained in Ohio until 1868, with the exception of two years in Pennsylvania, engaged as foreman in the construction of the Pennsylvania canal, and eight years more or less of the time in Wisconsin in manufacturing lumber.

In 1868 he came to came to Clarke County, Iowa, and settled on the farm where he now lives. Justin Ayres was married to Angeline Clark, daughter of Johnson Clark, in Ohio, May 1835. To them were born seven children, but five of whom are living – Homer Clark, Frances Kimball, Alma L., Charles Thomas, and Grace M. Rice. Thomas Corwin Ayres died September, 1847, aged nine years; George W. died January 4, 1864, aged eleven years. Angeline Ayres died in Ohio, September, 1866, aged fifty-two years.

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