J. D. McKIM whose farm is located on Section 5 in Union township, is one of the early settlers of Appanoose County [Iowa] and was the first teacher of this township. From that time to the present he has been active in support of material, social, intellectual and moral interests calculated to benefit the community, and his locality classes him with its best citizens. He was born in Spencer County, Indiana March 11, 1827, and on one side comes form Scotch ancestry and on the other of Scotch-Irish.

His father, Robert McKIM was born in Kentucky in July 1798, and was reared in that state and in Indiana. He became a hunter and largely devoted his time to the hunting of wild animals with the Indians. When a young man he had served in some of the Indian wars and the war of 1812. He was married in Kentucky to Elizabeth TATE, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Samuel TATE, who also rendered his country by aiding in protecting the frontier settlements against Indian attacks.

To Mr. and Mrs. Robert McKIM were born twelve children of whom five reached years of maturity, while three are still living, those being: Alfred, of Missouri; Sarah, who is living in the same state; and John D., of this review.

The mother died in Spencer County, Indiana, and the father afterward married Nancy LAMAR, by whom he had three children, but all are now deceased. His death occurred in Spencer County [Indiana], February 23, 1862. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist Church, and he was a Republican in his political views.

John D. McKIM was reared upon the home farm in Spencer County [Indiana] and is indebted to the public schools of that locality for the educational privileges he enjoyed. When he deceased to be a student he became a teacher and followed that profession for several terms. In his native county he married Rebecca LAMAR, who was a native of Spencer county, Indiana, born April 2, 1831, her parents being Elisha and Nancy (WOLLEN) LAMAR, natives of Kentucky, the former died in Indiana in middle life, and his children were Mrs. McKIM, Elijah, now deceased; Mathias, who was a soldier of the Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry in the war of the Rebellion and is now deceased; Hannah, who has also passed away; and Trusten, who was a soldier of the Twenty-first Missouri Infantry and is now living in Oklahoma.

In the year 1851 Mr. McKIM left his old home in Indiana and came to Appanoose county, Iowa, settling in Union township, where he has since resided. He has lived upon his present farm for eighteen years and has here a tract of sixty-one acres of good land, on which he has a comfortable home a substantial barn and a fine bearing orchard. His fields, too, are well cultivated and his labors annually bring to him a comfortable living. The home of Mr. and Mrs. McKIM has been blessed with ten children: Alfred, of Ringgold county, Iowa; J. R. (Riley), of Nebraska; James R., deceased; Elijah of Marion, who has also passed away; Mathias Woolen, of Moravia; Lewis Cass, of this county; Mrs. Martha Josephine SAPP, deceased; Mrs. Sarah E. STOCKER, of Union township; Frank Leslie, of Des Moines, Iowa and one that died in infancy.

Mr. McKIM's military service began on the 7th of November, 1862, at which time he joined the boys in blue of Company B, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, serving until the close of the war. He was under command of Captain John WILCOX and Colonel SUMER and the regiment did duty in Nebraska and the west against the hostile Indians, being stationed at different times at Fort Riley, at Fort Kearney, at O'Fallon's and Julesburg, Colorado, and at other points upon the frontier. They did much effective service for the government in suppressing the uprising of the Indians.

Mr. McKIM had his toes and lower limbs frozen and has suffered much since that time on account of this. He has always voted Republican party and has served on the school board and he was the first teacher of Union township [Appanoose County, Iowa] and was followed by Thomas UNDERWOOD, our subject examining him and giving him his certificate. The cause of education has ever found in Mr. McKIM a warm friend, and on the school board he did everything in his power to advance educational interest here. He belongs to the Christian church, his wife to the United Brethren church, and both are people of genuine worth. His word is as good as his bond, his integrity standing as an unquestioned fact in his career. He was still living at the time of this article [circa 1903] and was liked and respected by the community.

NOTE: John David McKIM died in Unionville, Appanoose County, Iowa, in 1908. Rebecca (LAMAR) McKIM was born in 1832, Indiana, and died on November 3, 1910, Unionville, Iowa. Alfred Newton McKIM was born in Spencer County, Indiana, on January 4, 1848, resided in Ringgold County, Iowa, and died in Jefferson City, Missouri on October 24, 1931. Alfred was married to Harriet SCOTT who died on April 24, 1918.

SOURCE: LEWIS, S. Thompson, compiler. Biographical and Genealogical History of Appanoose and Monroe Counties, Iowa p. 58. Lewis Publishing Company. Chicago. 1903

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2009