LEWIS L. DURHAM
Lewis L. Durham was born in Lewis county, New York, March 24, 1830. He lived in Lewis and Jefferson counties until about nineteen years of age. His father was a farmer and he was reared to that pursuit. His father died in Jefferson county, and his mother died while on a visit to him (Lewis) in La Salle county, Illinois. At the age of eighteen years he first came west and remained a few months in Michigan, then returned to New York. In 1850 he again came West and about a year later started overland for California, but abandoned the trip near Fort Laramie and returned to La Salle county, Illinois. He was married October 3, 1851, to Lucetta M. Jones, who was born near Crawfordsville, Pennsylvania, in 1832. He remained in La Salle county, until 1854, then came to this State and and located in Benton county, where he purchased and improved a farm of two hundred acres. In 1856, he sold out and removed to Hardin county, where he bought a partially improved farm of one hundred and forty-five acres, which later he enlarged to seven hundred acres. When the war broke out he enlisted in company C, of the Sixth Iowa Volunteers, and was mustered in as a non-commissioned officer. He participated in all of the engagements of his regiment, except that of Jackson, when he was in the hospital, which included the battles of Pittsburg Landing, siege of Corinth, siege of Vicksburg, and in the army of Sherman which went to the relief of Chattanooga; also the battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge, and other important engagements. The last ten months of his service he was orderly sergeant of the Fourth Wisconsin Regiment, Pioneer Corps. He returned to Hardin county, Iowa, and remained until 1878, when he came to Cass county, and is now identified with all of its material interests. His farm contains two hundred and sixty acres, on sections 29 and 30, all under good improvement. Mr. Durham's present wife was formerly Anna Onions, who was born in England in 1846. They were married in 1873. Six children have been born to them, two of whom are deceased--Lewis, died at the age of three years and seven months; Lillie Viola was born in 1873; Olive May in 1875; Orrin (deceased) in 1877; Anna Laura in 1878, and James Garfield in 1880.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass county, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 745-746.
