Alexander, Charles (1837-1920)

ALEXANDER

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/14/2019 at 23:16:04

Charles Alexander
Apr 2, 1837 - Sep 10, 1920

[From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.376]
CHARLES ALEXANDER, a prominent farmer of Boomer Township, was born in Philadelphia, April 2, 1837. His father, ALEX A. ALEXANDER, a native of Scotland, spent his youthful days on a farm in his native country and learned the millwright and carpentry trades. At the age of twenty-seven he was married to ELIZABETH MOYES who was born in the East Indies in 1797 her father being an English officer of war sent to that country, who remained in charge of a post there some fifteen years. He then returned to Scotland in ill health, where he soon died, leaving a wife and five children: Andrew, James, John, Walter and Elizabeth. The latter was married at the age of twenty-five years and by this union there were the following children: Maron, James, Elizabeth, Ann, Alexander, William, Charles and Margaret, and two died young. Their parents came from Scotland to America in 1835, landing at Philadelphia where they remained two years and then came to Dubuque in 1837. Mr. Alexander built the first frame house erected in that city, and died there in September 1845 leaving a wife and eight children: Marian, James, Elizabeth, Ann, Alexander, William, Charles (our subject) and Margaret. The mother spent her last days with her children on the farm in Jackson Co which her husband had bought, dying in January 1877. Mr. CHARLES ALEXANDER, our subject, inheriting 40 acres of land, married and three years afterward disposed of that land and in 1861 came to Pottawattamie Co and purchased another 40 acres of wild land in Boomer Twp and commenced to improve it. August 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, at Council Bluffs, was placed under General Steele in Western Kentucky, in the Army of the West. His regiment participated in several fierce battles. At Jenkins' Ferry on the Saline River, he was wounded in two places, one ball passing through his arm below the elbow and then through his side and left lung. In this condition, he was taken prisoner, while his comrades were on the retreat, and he was held captive 8 months at Camp Ford, Tyler, Texas and other places. In the camp where he was placed were 80 cases of yellow fever, of which but two recovered, he being one of the two. Shortly afterward he was paroled at Galveston and rejoined his regiment at Little Rock, Arkansas. After spending two months at home, he again joined his regiment and was at the capture of Spanish Fort, next at the Rio Grande and about the last of July the regiment was ordered back to New Orleans, where August 10 it was mustered out. Returning to his farm, Mr. ALEXANDER made many improvements and purchased forty acres more land, broke it and made a comfortable home. In 1871 he sold that place and purchased 80 acres of unimproved prairie and made another home. Subsequently he sold this also for $2,000, spent a year in California buying property in San Jose. Returning to Pottawattamie County, he purchased the 80 acres where he now lives, on section 8, Boomer Twp. Here he has erected a fine frame house, 32 X 44 feet and the usual farm structures, and has devoted his attention to general farming and stock raising. Considering the serious wound he received in the service of his country and the abuse while a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, -- which was equally in the service of his country, -- thus disabling him to a great extent, it is really a source of marvel to witness how much he has accomplished. Mr. ALEXANDER is a thoroughgoing Democrat. He has held nearly all the township offices, been County Supervisor a year and a half, etc. and has always fulfilled his public duties with satisfaction to his fellow citizens. He has taken an active and efficient part in all the movements that are of public benefit. He is a zealous member of the Mutual Protection Association. Of his five children, there are still four living, namely: Moyes, born January 1, 1860, and died February 5, 1863; Alice, born Feb 1, 1862, is the wife of DENVER HOUGH in Crescent City; Henry Thomas, born Nov 28, 1865, died August 22, 1867; Elizabeth A., born March 28, 1868, is now Mrs. EDWARD SEABOLD, residing in Harrison County; Charles I., born Nov 28, 1870 and Nellie May, born March 7, 1873, are both at home; and William Edward, born March 19, 1879, died July 9, 1879. Mrs. Alexander's brothers and sisters are: Phoebe, wife of Adam Heagney in California; Hannah, wife of Dominick Heagney, residing in Missouri Valley, Iowa; Henry, in California; Henrietta, deceased; she herself (Catherine) was the youngest in order of birth. Their parents were ISAAC and CATHARINE (EARL) SCOTT, natives of New York state. Mr. Scott was born in NY June 10, 1805, and his wife Oct 2, 1802. He was a farmer all his life, removing first to Pennsylvania then to Iowa in an early day. His wife died in NY in 1841 and he was subsequently married to CATHARINE RICE, whose parents were natives of England and then he came to Dubuque and to this county in 1860 locating in Boomer Twp where he died Oct 27, 1877. His wife survived only one week.